Credit: Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times  /  Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon at UN world headquarters in New York  Oct. 28, 2019.

By Gary Raynaldo    /  DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –  NEW YORK  –  Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon accused President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey military actions in northern Syria as part of his mission to drag the region “down a neo‑Ottoman imperialist path”.  Ambassador Danon made the assertion during Monday’s UN Security Council quarterly open debate on the situation in the Middle East.   Danon said Turkey’s President not only massacres Kurds in his own country, but is now doing so in neighbouring countries, forcing the displacement of thousands of people.  The Israeli ambassador also accused Turkey of being a nerve center for regional terrorism, and said Erdoğan  has transformed his country into a haven for Hamas.  Ambassador Danon charged that those actions have allowed members of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) to break out of prison.

“It is a disgrace that the (UN Security) Council continues to target Israel, recycling old arguments, rather than focusing on the devastation and ethnic cleansing currently being caused by Turkey.” 

-Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon

Credit: Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times  /  Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon at UN world headquarters in New York  Oct. 28, 2019.

Such terror groups now pose a threat to the entire international community, he warned, pointing to recent attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities which affected consumers around the world.  He went on to state that when citizens are persecuted and terrorized in their own homes, they flee in search of safety, becoming refugees.  “The immigration crisis is a direct result of growing influence of terrorist forces in the region.

DIPLOMATIC TIMES Video / Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon at UN world headquarters in New York  Oct. 28, 2019.

 Israel’s Illegal Occupation and Colonization Is an” Apartheid State”: UN Palestine Observer

Credit: Gary Raynaldo /  Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, on the Palestinian question, speaks to press outside UN Security Council chamber Oct. 28, 2019.

Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine, noted the monthly reports of the worsening situation as Israel, the occupying Power, intensifies its  “illegal occupation and colonization.”  Mansour said the international consensus is firm, as  attempts to alter or negate it have failed.  International law is clear, the parameters of a just solution are clear and there is no alternative to the vision of two States based on the 1967 lines, he added, citing the relevant resolutions:  the Madrid “land for peace” principle, the Arab Peace Initiative and the Middle East Quartet Roadmap.

In the absence of serious action, however, the alternative is rapidly unfolding, he said, describing it as an apartheid State in control of the lives of millions who are violently and unjustly deprived of their fundamental human rights.

“The occupying Power has been led to believe it has carte blanche to act as a State above the law.”  He noted that Israel  goes so far as to openly threaten to annex land in flagrant breach of the universal prohibition on the acquisition of territory by force.

Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, briefed the Security Council by videoconference on the Israeli-Palestinian situation and said the past month has witnessed the continuing deterioration of the situation on the ground.  With no prospect of final status negotiations on the horizon, he said, facts on the ground continue to deteriorate, pushing us ever further from a viable two‑State solution.

 Citing Israel’s approval of additional settlement housing units, he reiterated that settlements are illegal under international law.  Demolitions and seizures of Palestinian‑owned structures also continue across the West Bank, he noted, calling upon Israel to stop such practices.