Israel’s UN Ambassador Speech to the Security Council
The UN Security Council met intensively on the 29th of November 2023 in New York on the Middle East crisis. It was the first open meeting since mid-November and the first featuring foreign ministers from across the region.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, held a powerful speech to the Security Council, offering a historical overview, identifying the root causes of the ongoing conflict, and offering a solution to end the war.
If you have missed it, please find below the complete transcript.
Ambassador Gilad Erdan’s Speech:
Thank you, Mr. President. On November 29th, 1947 the UN voted to adopt the partition plan and the establishment of the Jewish state.
Yet while Israel joyfully accepted this resolution, the Arab states rejected it and instead tried to annihilate Israel. Today, exactly 76 years later, history is somewhat repeating itself. Foreign ministers of some Arab countries have arrived here today in order to support a terror organization that aims to annihilate Israel.
Thankfully, the plan to eliminate Israel was unsuccessfully then, just as it will be unsuccessfully today. Despite the terrible position, Israel was born. And not only did Israel survive their attack, but we thrived, becoming a powerhouse of impact, benefiting all of humanity, including our neighbors who live with us in peace.
Distinguished Council members this deep-seated hatred of Israel and Jews from even before its establishment until this very day stems from the very same genocidal ideology that drives Hamas. This is not a political conflict or about partitioning land. It is solely about the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews.
Please, look at this picture. This picture tells you everything you need to know about this conflict. This is Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and one of the founding fathers of Palestinian nationalism. Al-Husseini dedicated his life to ensuring that there would be no Jewish presence in Israel or in any Arab land. The Muftis hate spread across the Levant, and tragically, he was partially successful in creating a Judenrein, Jew-free Middle East. His followers led the 1929 and the 1936 massacres in Israel. They were at the helm of the Farhud massacre in Baghdad in 1941 and other massacres against Jews in the Arab world.
And it was the Mufti’s ideology which sparked the expulsion of Jews, from Arab countries and Iran. A century ago, council members, over 1,000,000 Jews lived in Arab countries, 1,000,000 Jews, yet today there are only a couple thousand. Where did all the Jews disappear to? The Jews of Lebanon, the Jews of Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Iran. They were expelled, so enough with the hypocrisy.
The word genocide or carnage is often thrown around here in a libelous context, as if it is something that happens every day or at all. But we, the Jewish people, know exactly what genocide looks like. We have experienced genocidal attempts and attacks more than once, from Hitler and the Mufti, to the terror organizations that follow in their footsteps, and their name is not even mentioned here.
Sadly, the Mufti’s genocidal ideology continues to poison many Arab Muslim minds to this very day. It is the same ideology that Israel is currently defending itself against, an ideology that doesn’t accept a Jewish state in any borders or the existence of Jews anywhere.
The Palestinian Mufti is no different than Yahya Sinwar or Ismail Haniyeh. Their names are not mentioned here. They are not connected to these discussions. He is no different than Hassan Nasrallah, the Houthis, or the Ayatollahs in Iran. They are all the same, driven by the same goal of Israel’s annihilation and the mass murder of Jews.
It’s time for the Security Council to address this evil before another atrocity is committed. Council members on October 7th, Hamas unleashed an unprovoked act of pure evil upon Israel, massacring the most Jews in one day since the Holocaust.
Yet shockingly, here we are, nearly two months later, and Hamas’s savage crimes still have not been condemned by this body or any other UN body. How do you expect me to react to this? How would you react if a terror organization massacred thousands of your citizens, abducted hundreds of them, and the Security Council refused to condemn the terrorists?
Hamas has publicly stated, you all saw it, that it will repeat October 7 over and over again until Israel is no more. How would you respond and defend your citizens from such a clear threat, with a ceasefire? How can one call for a ceasefire and at the same time claim to seek a solution to the conflict? After all, anyone who supports a ceasefire basically supports Hamas’s continued reign of terror in Gaza.
Hamas is a genocidal terror organization. They don’t hide it, not a reliable partner for peace. Don’t you see the contradiction here? Calling for both a ceasefire and peace is a paradox.
Colleagues, humanitarian aid is very, very important, but more food, water and medical supplies will not bring us closer to a solution.
Hamas doesn’t care about the people in Gaza. All they are interested in is implementing Hitler’s final solution. And nothing can change, a genocidal ideology. It must be uprooted and eradicated. Every call for a ceasefire means Hamas gets to live to see another day, terrorizing Israelis and impoverishing Gazans.
Every discussion focused only on humanitarian aid, which is extremely important, but ignores Hamas, the root of all the suffering in Gaza. Israel, as you all know, fully withdrew from Gaza 18 years ago. Not a single Israeli community or a soldier was left. Did Hamas cultivate Gaza after Israel’s disengagement? Or did they invest every possible resource in terror and death?
Look at their subterranean city of terror and their hundreds of kilometers of terror tunnels. Billions and billions of dollars! How many schools, how many hospitals, how many power plants could have been built in Gaza, if all funds, UN funds were not diverted to terror?
This Council must also not remain silent about the Shiite elephant in the room. Iran armed, Iran funded, Iran trained Hamas, but the Ayatollah regime’s central role in the ruin of the region has not even been addressed here. It’s not as if Hamas is fighting Israel alone. Hezbollah missiles have been raining down on northern Israeli towns, and Iran doesn’t hide its aim of Israel’s destruction.
Iran publicly supports the October 7th massacre, what started everything. Does Iran’s central role in destabilizing the security of the Middle East not deserve to even be raised here?
It is clear that the UN has been co-opted by those that have no real interest in a solution. Every UN body has been weaponized against Israel. Today we will be hearing from some foreign ministers of countries that have not even condemned Hamas’s massacre. Can we honestly expect them to provide a productive option? The only input that can be valued here is from parties that have condemned Hamas’s massacre. This is the basic thing, this should be the bare minimum.
Just look at what has been taking place at the UN over the past week. UN briefers from UNICEF did not even bother to mention Hamas’s indoctrination of Gazan children to terror. UN Women did not brief the Council on the savage rape and sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli women. And this entire week has been dedicated only to Palestinian solidarity, despite the fact that all of this started only because Hamas carried out a deliberate and unprovoked massacre of Israelis.
On Monday, the Council held a private meeting focusing on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Only yesterday, the General Assembly discussed the Palestinian question. And not once in the past eight weeks has any of the UN bodies held Hamas accountable for their war crimes. This only proves that advancing a real solution, sadly, is not the goal.
Council members, from the day of Israel’s establishment, we have shown that we are a willing partner for peace. 76 years ago we accepted Resolution 181, while the Palestinians rejected it, just as they rejected every other peace plan ever presented, be it by Clinton, Obama or any other president. Israel was delighted to sign the peace treaties with Egypt, with Jordan, the Abraham Accords, this is because Israel strives for peace, while the Palestinians strive for war, for terror.
For them, the only solution, accepted solution, is one that prevents the existence of a Jewish state. Colleagues, Israel’s value of preserving life can also be seen on the ground now in Gaza. Israel has upheld and even gone beyond the quotas of humanitarian aid entering Gaza. Israel has shown a deep willingness to work with any international body to improve the situation. Israel has facilitated the entry of equipment to establish field hospitals, we have opened safe humanitarian corridors and approved the entry of fuel.
Hamas has separated mothers from their children during the hostage release. In a clear breach of the agreed-upon outline. All while threatening Gazans and preventing them from evacuating an active war zone.
Hamas wants more violence. They want to raise Gazan casualties. Why? They want to exploit falsified death tolls, just so this Council will ignore their crimes, focus on condemning Israel and tie our hand. This is their script. Hamas knows that the international community is their only hope for survival.
Mr. President, the only way to dramatically improve the situation is to support Israel’s mission to eradicate Hamas’s terror capabilities. I reiterate again and again and again, this war can end tomorrow, even today, if Hamas returns all of the hostages and turns in all the terrorists who took part in the massacre. A real ceasefire can be achieved that will last decades. Demand this of Hamas! This is the solution! The time has come for this Council to fully, truly, focus on its mandate. Security, security. Thank you, Mr. President.