Ambassador Danon: World must reject Palestinian recalcitrance
“The reality is that Israel wants peace and security,” Danon said. “The Palestinians, unfortunately, time and again, choose rejectionism over any realistic solution.”
By LAHAV HARKOVIsrael's Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Danny Danon speaks during a meeting of the UN Security Council at UN headquarters in New York, February 20, 2018(photo credit: LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS)
The world must tell the Palestinians that their continued rejection of any realistic solution to the conflict with Israel will not advance their interests, Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday.Danon pushed back against the argument that moves by Israel would put an end to peace negotiations, saying the Palestinians have rejected talks repeatedly.“The reality is that Israel wants peace and security,” Danon said. “The Palestinians, unfortunately, time and again, choose rejectionism over any realistic solution.”The UN Security Council meeting, in which council member spoke as well as Danon and representatives of the Arab League and Palestinian Authority, focused on the possibility that Israel will apply its sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, in accordance with US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.Danon called the plan a “significant regional opportunit[y],” which Israel will pursue “responsibly and in full cooperation with the US, while maintaining Israel’s peace agreements and strategic interests.”“We expect the international community to make it clear to the Palestinians that their refusal to engage will not advance Palestinian interests,” he added.Danon accused the international community of supporting a “false narrative” touted by the Palestinians, attempting to the Jewish people’s historic connection to the Land of Israel and claiming Jews are European colonists.Starting with Abraham and Moses and ending with the Arch of Titus in Rome depicting “the spoils of Jerusalem” from the Holy Temple, Danon gave ancient examples of Jewish ties to the land. He also gave an overview of the international law defense of Israel’s establishment in that land, including the League of Nations’ 1922 designation of the land west of the Jordan River to be a Jewish homeland.“These artifacts are not fifty or a hundred years old, but thousands of years old. So, too, is our history in the land of Israel. And throughout that time in the Diaspora, the Jewish people never once relinquished our claim to our homeland,” he said. “Those who oppose Israel’s legal claims to this territory, also wrongly mischaracterize any potential Israeli decision to extend its sovereignty to this territory as so-called ‘annexation.’ These objections result from embracing a Palestinian false narrative, rather than an assessment of the historical and legal facts.”What stands in the way of peace, Danon said, is not the discussion over where to extend Israeli law.
“What stands in the way of peace is Palestinian rejectionism and the encouragement that they get from some in the international community,” he concluded. “It is time that international community chooses realism over rejectionism.”
