Wiesenthal Center Criticizes Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Remarks Placing Blame on Israel for Failure to Reach Middle East Peace

January 26, 2016

The Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized the remarks of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who blamed Israel’s ‘occupation’ for the failure to achieve peace in the Middle East, saying, “It is human nature to react to occupation.”

"This is a complete distortion of history, the equivalent of blaming the Allies for the invasion of Normandy. Any land that Israel occupied has been the result of five wars unleashed on her by the neighboring Arab states who to this day refuse to accept the existence of a small Jewish, democratic state alongside them," charged Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean of the Jewish human rights organization.

Photo: Rabbi Hier at a meeting with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2015

"Never before in history has the world witnessed horrific scenes of teenagers with knives and machetes indiscriminately butchering innocent civilians in their homes and on the streets. Such fanatical behavior is outside of the human lexicon and would not be tolerated by any other country. It is this that should have been condemned by the Secretary General," continued Rabbi Hier.

"Ban Ki-Moon is right about the two-state solution slipping away, but that’s because what we have before us is a three-state solution with Gaza in the hands of Hamas terrorists, firing rockets and Ramallah in the hands of an impotent government that bestows honor on terrorists. No Israeli government, Likud or Labor, and no country in the world, would ever negotiate under these untenable circumstances," Hier concluded.

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).