“Treat us like human beings”
Palestinians: “Gaza is hell on earth”
October 31, 2023, 7:47 a.m
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At the United Nations, Palestinian representative Mansur begs not to ignore the suffering of the civilian population. At the same time, Israel wants more support from the UN. His ambassador uses a powerful symbol for this.
The Palestinian representative to the United Nations has chosen drastic words for the suffering of the population in the Gaza Strip. At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, Riad Mansur first quoted former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld as saying: “The United Nations was not founded to take us to heaven, but to save us from hell. ” Then Mansur added, referring to the fierce fighting in the Middle East: “Gaza is now hell on earth.”
Saving humanity from hell means nothing other than saving the Palestinians in Gaza. Mansur pleaded with the UN’s most powerful body: “Treat us like human beings, with the respect we deserve. We are not subhuman. We are not from another planet.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan pinned a yellow Star of David with the words “Never Again” on his lapel in front of the Security Council. This is reminiscent of stars that the Nazis forced on Jews as identification marks in the Third Reich. He will wear the star, like his grandparents and the grandparents of millions of Jews, Erdan said to the Security Council. “We will wear the star until you condemn Hamas’ atrocities and demand the immediate release of our hostages.”
Israel draws comparison to D-Day
Erdan compared Israel’s ground offensive to the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944. If the UN Security Council had existed on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, there would probably have been a heated debate about how much electricity and fuel the citizens of Munich would have left, he mocked the UN Security Council. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also compared the war against Hamas to the Allies’ fight against the Nazis. Despite criticism of the high number of civilian casualties, he rejected a ceasefire.
Terrorists from Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, carried out a massacre of civilians in Israel on October 7th. More than 1,400 people died during and in the following days.