UN’s Ban stands firm on Israeli-Palestinian remarks after Benjamin Netanyahu rebuke
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier this week for remarks that Netanyahu said provided a “tailwind for terrorism,” the UN top diplomat, a day after being rebuked, seemed to stand firmly by the views he expressed on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In his speech to the Security Council a day earlier, which he said included condemnations of violence targeting Israeli civilians, Ban said Wednesday he could “understand why Palestinians living the reality on the ground may dismiss it. Because they have heard so much of it before.”
“The people of Palestine have lived through half a century of occupation, and they have heard half a century of statements condemning it. But life hasn’t meaningfully changed. Children have become grandparents. But life hasn’t changed, Ban said at the opening of the 2016 Session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
After nearly 50 years of occupation — after decades of waiting for the fulfillment of the Oslo promises — Palestinians are losing hope. Young people especially are losing hope. They are angered by the stifling policies of the occupation. They are frustrated by the strictures on their daily lives. They watch as Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, expand and expand.