Netanyahu accuses UN chief of encouraging terrorism

Israel’s Prime Minister last night accused the United Nations chief of ‘encouraging terror’ by trying to justify growing Palestinian frustration at Israel's occupation.

Benjamin Netanyahu issued a furious response after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said it was human nature for oppressed peoples to react to occupation.

Violence over the past four months in the region has killed 159 Palestinians and 25 Israelis, and Mr Netanyahu claimed Palestinian killers ‘want to murder Jews wherever they are’.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister said in a statement: ‘The comments of the UN Secretary General encourage terror. There is no justification for terror.’

Mr Ban told the UN Security Council of the ‘profound sense of alienation and despair driving some Palestinians - especially young people’ in the upsurge of attacks on Israelis since October.

‘Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process,’ he said

‘As oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism.’

Violence since October 1 has killed 159 Palestinians and 25 Israelis, as well as an American and an Eritrean, according to a count by Agence France-Presse.

Most of the Palestinians killed since October have been attackers, while others have been shot dead by Israeli forces during protests and clashes.

Mr Ban condemned the Palestinian attacks, but said Israeli settlement building cast doubt on Israel's commitment to the goal of an independent Palestine alongside the Jewish state.
‘Continued settlement activities are an affront to the Palestinian people and to the international community,’ he said.

‘They rightly raise fundamental questions about Israel's commitment to a two-state solution.’

Mr Netanyahu responded that the Palestinians themselves were not working for two states.

‘The Palestinian murderers do not want to build a state, they want to destroy a state and they say it out loud,’ he said.

‘They want to murder Jews wherever they are and they say so out loud. They do not murder for peace and they do not murder for human rights.’