Palestine’s United Nations Permanent Observer Riyad Mansour yesterday criticized the countries that said Israel has the right to defend itself when it attacks and kills Palestinians, saying that Israel interprets this as a license to kill.

“When Israel now tries to justify yet another assault (on Gaza) by the same faulty premise, no one should say or do anything to encourage it down this path. We know only too well that the messages about “Israel’s right to defend itself” will be interpreted by Israel as a license to kill, to pursue the very path that led us here,” he said.
“Where is the international protection the Palestinian people are entitled to when the occupying Power violates international law and harms those it is obliged to protect? Aren’t Palestinian lives worth saving? The Palestinian civilians killed, the Palestinian children killed in occupied Palestine could have been spared. Isn’t that a moral and legal obligation and a contribution to peace? Why nothing is done when those killed are Palestinians?
“We need to think hard of what logic we want to see prevail here. If this is about vengeance, then many Palestinians will feel they have much to avenge. If this is about peace, then the way to it is not through further entrenching oppression and occupation but by ending it.
“You cannot say ‘nothing justifies killing Israelis’ and then provide justifications for killing Palestinians. We are not sub-humans. We will never accept a rhetoric that denigrates our humanity and reneges our rights. A rhetoric that ignores the occupation of our land and oppression of our people,” stressed the Palestinian official.
“There is no right to security that trumps the right of a nation to self-determination. The fulfillment of our right to self-determination is the only path towards shared peace and security,” said Mansour, calling no “all the peacemakers, to all those who believe in the UN Charter and international law, one cannot lose sight of the bigger picture. We need to stand up for the vision enshrined in the resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly. And to take the necessary measures to ensure compliance with their provisions. We need to uphold international law, not abandon it.”
He added: “Israel expects and demands political and military support while advancing goals that are fundamentally at odds with international legitimacy and consensus. Its policies are an assault on our humanity, on international law, on peace, and are a threat for its own people. Can those supporting Israel ignore its colonialist and racist agenda? That would be self-defeating.
“A different path is possible. But it cannot ignore the lives and rights of the Palestinian people. It must guarantee them equal measures of freedom and security. You cannot stand for peace if you do not stand up to occupation.’