Israel ‘Extremely Addicted’ to Death, Destruction: Iran’s UN Envoy

“…in Israel’s view, Palestinians have no rights; no right to assembly; to expression; to protest; to return; to establish their own State; and even no right to life; and because Israel is extremely addicted to cruelty, crime, death and destruction,” Khoshrou said on Thursday addressing a session of the United Nations Security Council on “the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question”.

Following is the full text of this speech before the council:

In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful,

Mr. President,

I sincerely thank the Bolivian Presidency of the Council for convening this meeting.

We also warmly congratulate Bolivia’s exemplary leadership of the Council.

I also thank the briefers and align myself with the NAM and OIC statements.

The situation in Palestine continues to deteriorate.

With new Israeli crimes, the number of Palestinian protestors killed exceeded 200 and the number of those injured surpassed 22,000.

Why are they protesting?

They protest:

the systematic violation of their inherent rights over the past 70 years;

the occupation of their land;

the decade-long inhumane siege on Gaza;

the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by the US;

the racism and its legalization by recent Israeli law;

the demolishment of their homes; and

the construction of Israeli settlements.

They want to return to their ancestral lands; to their own homes; to their own villages; to their own cities; and to establish their own State with Al Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

But why does Israel kill them?

Israel kills them; merely:

because they are Palestinians; whether they are children, women, paramedics, farmers or fishermen;

because in Israel’s view, Palestinians have no rights; no right to assembly; to expression; to protest; to return; to establish their own State; and even no right to life;

and because Israel is extremely addicted to cruelty, crime, death and destruction.

Mr. President,

With these realities before us, let us review what this Council has done to protect Palestinians’ rights and lives?

During the past seven decades, the Council has adopted over 300 resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and the related issues.

The Council’s latest resolution was resolution 2334.

In previous meetings, almost all Council members stated that Israel has violated this resolution.

This, of course, is only one out of the Council’s more than 300 resolutions violated by Israel: the symbol of an international outlaw.

The US unconditionally shields Israel against any measure by this Council. One example is by vetoing the Council’s 44 resolutions.

In practice, the US has rendered this Council absolutely ineffective, with respect to Israel.

Therefore, Israel has been emboldened:

to commit all four core international crimes;

to wage over 15 wars;

to occupy territories of Arab countries;

to invade, without exception, all of its neighbors;

to attack other countries in the region and beyond;

to possess all types of weapons of mass destruction;

and the list goes on.

Now, the question stands: is there any option other than taking bold international action to hold both the US and Israel accountable for all of their wrongdoings and depriving Palestinians from their inherent rights?

That is why we believe that the world should continue supporting the realization of Palestinian rights and reject further occupation, aggression, oppression, and intimidation.

Complying with this meeting’s agenda, I just focused on the question of Palestine. We will make a further statement to respond to irrelevant claims of the US representative.

I thank you, Mr. President.