At UN, Palestinians call on Israel to ‘end apartheid’

People carry the body of Palestinian boy Mohammed Shehadeh, who was killed by Israeli troops, during his funeral in Bethlehem on Feb. 23, 2022. (REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma)

• Israeli ambassador to the UN sidesteps Palestinian’s accusations by directing attention toward Hamas

UNITED NATIONS: The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations on Wednesday urged the Security Council to stop Israel from discriminating against Palestinians, wearing a black mask emblazoned with the phrase “End Apartheid.”
Speaking at a monthly meeting on the Middle East, Riyad Mansour evoked the term “apartheid” 15 times and called on the Council to protect “our long-suffering people.”
“This Council may not be ready to use the word, but apartheid is, and has been, for a while now, our reality,” said the Palestinian envoy.
“Israel may be outraged by the word,” Mansour said, but he added that “everyone else should be outraged by the policy.”
“Condemnations alone will never suffice to deter Israel,” he said.
“It is time to translate your words into actions. Actions to end apartheid.”
In his own address, Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, did not address the Palestinian’s accusations, but rather chose to direct attention toward Hamas, exhorting the council to recognize the group as a “radical terror organization” for “deliberately targeting civilian populations all in the name of advancing the destruction of the State of Israel.”
“Countries all around the world have recognized Hamas as the terror organization that it is, but sadly, this council has failed to do so,” he added.
The Israeli ambassador criticized the apartheid messaging after the meeting, saying in a statement that it is “a joint campaign between ‘human rights organizations’ and the Palestinians with the mission of delegitimizing Israel as a Jewish democratic state.”