Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan slammed the UN for commemorating the voting anniversary of the 1947 partition plan with an event held in solidarity with the Palestinians.
The plan, known as Resolution 181, called to partition the area of British Mandatory Palestine into two states - one Jewish and one Arab.
On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to recognize the establishment of a Jewish state in parts of the Mandate.
The Jews accepted the plan, while the Palestinians and neighboring Arab states rejected it and launched the War of Independence.
Erdan also deemed “outrageous” the UN for promoting a Palestinian “right of return,” a demand for the millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to come back to their ancestors’ lands in what is now modern day Israel.
Israel rejects the demand, saying that it represents a bid by the Palestinians to destroy Israel by weight of numbers.
Israel’s population is almost nine million, some three-quarters of whom are Jewish. An influx of millions would mean Israel could no longer be a Jewish-majority state.
“Israel accepted this partition plan... the Palestinians and the Arab countries rejected it and tried to destroy us,” Erdan said in a video message marking the occasion on his Twitter page.
“They also persecuted, massacred, and ultimately expelled the Jewish communities in their own countries,” he added, accusing the international community of ignoring those events and only focusing on the Palestinians.
“Instead, the UN has the audacity to hold a solidarity event for the Palestinians on the anniversary of the Palestinians’ own decision to choose violence,”Erdan stressed.
“On the day that the Palestinians chose violence, the UN also dares to advance the outrageous and false right of return, a demand that would lead to the total obliteration of the Jewish state.”
In order to underscore this issue, Israel’s mission to the UN launched a campaign together with the World Jewish Congress that will see trucks driving around New York with the message “Don’t erase Jewish history.”
According to the Israeli media, Erdan wants to focus on the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were expelled from Arab lands after the establishment of the State of Israel and their properties confiscated.
“By advancing and amplifying on the one side the false and dangerous narrative of the Palestinians and by silencing the true, tragic stories of the Jewish refugees who were expelled from the Arab countries and from Iran, the UN is erasing Jewish history and distorting the truth and we will never allow this to happen,” Erdan warned.
