Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon reacted harshly to a letter by Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti which was distributed to the members of the Security Council. In his letter, Barghouti compared himself to Nelson Mandela and described the Israeli legal system as “judicial apartheid.”
“Barghouti is a terrorist and a murderer,” said Ambassador Danon. “His actions glorify death and bloodshed are no different than those of ISIS which seeks to spread its hateful ideology throughout the world using terror,” the Ambassador continued.
Barghouti also wrote in his letter that for fifty years Israel, as the “occupying power,” arrested hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, denied them their basic rights and used violence against them. The letter was written to parliamentarians around the world and distributed to the Security Council members as part of Barghouti’s efforts to lead the Palestinian security prisoners strike.
Last Thursday, during a meeting of the Security Council, Ambassador Danon clashed with the Palestinians representative to the UN. At the meeting, Ambassadors Danon held up a photo of one of Barghouti’s victims and explained that, “this was Yoela Chen, a mother of two. Glorifying terrorists like Barghouti not only distances us from peace, but dishonors the memories of the innocent victims.”
Photo: Ambassador Danon in the Security Council last Thursday (credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas)
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
2 Responses
Some years ago a story circulated about one of the Palestinian leaders in an Israeli prison who said that he despaired of ever accomplishing anything until he saw a Jewish guard eating bread on Pesach. Then he decided that if the Jews have so little respect for their traditions his people would certainly prevail, R”L. At some point I might have heard that this was Barghouti. Does anyone out there remember clearly?
There are many similarities. Both were probably convicted correctly (Mandela was a traitor since he was trying to overthrow the South African government, Barghouti was supporting terrorism and murder). The procedure by which they were convicted was dubious, at least by American standards of fairness.
The major difference was that Mandela was a leader of a multi-racial group trying to establish a non-racist South Africa, whereas Barghouti’s movement wants a “Judenrein” Palestine. Mandela wanted a western democracy, Barghouti wants to do ethnic cleansing.