United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday morning 20 Tishrei visited Gaza as part of a regional visit. Included on his itinerary were UN schools hit by Israeli shelling of Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. He also used the opportunity to bash Israel once again for attacking those facilities, which he explained were serving as shelters for the Gazans who were displaced from their homes.

In line with his standard mantra, the UN leader stressed the need for renewed peace talks between Israel and the PA (Palestinian Authority), warning the absence of progress in negotiations will result in yet another round of warfare. The UN leader fell short of condemning Hamas terrorism and the fact that the Hamas leaders in Gaza allocate endless sums of international donor funds to advance their military agenda instead of bettering the quality of life for Gazans.

In his meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Ban slammed Israel’s continued construction in “settlements”.

At the beginning of their meeting, Mr. Netanyahu stated “The root cause of the violence that burst from Gaza is not Israel’s occupation in Gaza, for a simple reason: Israel doesn’t occupy Gaza.

“Israel left Gaza to the very last centimeter, to the very last inch. We uprooted all the settlements and vacated all the settlers. So there is no Israeli occupation of Gaza.

“The root cause of this summer’s outburst of violence was Hamas’ rocketing of Israeli cities, and these rocket attacks often exploited UN neutrality, using UN facilities and UN schools as part of the Hamas machine of terror.

“And when rockets were discovered inside UN schools, some UN officials handed them back to Hamas – that very same Hamas that was rocketing Israeli cities and Israeli civilians.

“The root cause of Hamas’ rocket fire on Israel is Hamas’ opposition to Israel’s very existence.

“Hamas doesn’t give a hoot for the 1967 lines. For them, Israel has no right to live, in any borders. Hamas rejects our very existence. They’re committed to killing every Israeli and every Jew. You just have to read their charter – they say that very plainly.

“So Hamas is the enemy of all of us who seek peace. And a real peace can only be achieved through bilateral negotiations with those who believe in peace.

“I believe that unilateral steps by the Palestinians at the United Nations will not advance peace. I think they’ll do the very opposite. They’ll bring about a further deterioration in the situation – something none of us want.”

“I’m committed, and Israel is committed, to maintaining the status quo exactly as it’s been for many decades.

“What we’re seeing are Palestinian extremists who are instigating violence through incitement. The incitement is spread by false and baseless rumors that we are threatening the Muslim holy places.

“Nothing could be further from the truth.

“Israel scrupulously maintains the protection of the holy sites, the right of all religions to worship in their holy places, and will continue to do so, maintaining order, maintaining freedom of worship.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)