TEL AVIV – U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Tuesday urged the UN Security Council to issue a resolution condemning Hamas and designating the Gaza-based group as a terror organization.
“Every ounce of what we do should be against Hamas,” Haley said as she spoke at a special meeting that marked the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War.
“We need to pressure Hamas to end its tyranny over the people of Gaza,” she said. “We should condemn Hamas in this Council’s resolutions and statements. We should name Hamas as the group responsible when rockets are fired from Gaza, or when fresh tunnels are discovered.”
She added, “we should designate Hamas as a terrorist organization in a resolution, with consequences for anyone who continues to support it.”
Hamas is a “dangerous actor who has no care for the Palestinians, no care for the Israelis, and they are determined to destroy everything in their path,” she stated.
“Once again, we are having this session, and once again, we will hear speeches on whether you’re for Israel, against Israel, for Palestinians, against Palestinians,” Haley said.
Without finger pointing, Haley accused certain council member of maintaining ties to Hamas and to other Gaza-based terrorist groups.
Other countries joined in the condemnation of Hamas, including the UK, France, Italy, Ukraine and Japan. British Deputy Ambassador to the UN Peter Wilson called for Hamas to destroy its underground network of terror tunnels.
However, many countries blamed Israel for Hamas’ actions, claiming that settlement activity was fueling the fire.
Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul- Gheit said that the Six Day War was the cause of Middle East violence and terrorism.
Bolivian Ambassador to the UN Sacha Sergio Llorenty Soliz, whose country holds the presidency of the Security Council this month, charged Israel with violating Palestinian human rights and UN resolutions as well as committing war crimes.
“The international community has failed the Palestinian people. We are not able to uphold the resolutions that we adopted. We are not even implementing the resolution [on statements] that was adopted a few months ago by the Security Council,” Llorenty said after the UN session.
“We will continue trying to be a voice in the Security Council for Palestinian inalienable rights,” said Llorenty.