Israeli UN Ambassador Erdan blasts UN for fueling antisemitism on US college campuses in fiery speech at UNGA

In a stinging speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan accused the United Nations of triggering a new wave of antisemitism on American college campuses by falsely accusing Israel in its war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

“By falsely condemning Israel and marking the Jewish State as the foundation of all evil, you are emboldening antisemites and terrorists alike. It is because of you that these mobs think that attacking Jews is acceptable. That calling for the deaths of Israelis is tolerable,” Erdan told the members of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

“This body reeks of antisemitism. It’s everywhere,” he continued and described pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests on college campuses that have led to Jewish students being attacked and barred from classes in recent weeks.

“The chants of the pro-Palestinian rioters on campuses are calls for Israel’s destruction. We always knew that Hamas hides in schools. We just didn’t realize that it’s not only schools in Gaza. It’s also Harvard, Columbia, and many elite universities,” Erdan said in his fiery speech.

I quoted the Passover Haggadah on the UN stage and told the ambassadors: Many have tried to destroy us, from the most powerful empires to the most evil decrees - but they all failed. The Jewish people are the eternal people and the State of Israel is here to stay!

Watch and… pic.twitter.com/vGWQTsNgEt
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) May 1, 2024

The Israeli UN ambassador compared the new wave of intense antisemitism in America’s elite universities with the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany.

“Just as Germany was the world capital of science and culture, yet it was there that Nazism was born and spread, history is now repeating itself. Elite universities – supposed bastions of liberalism and academia – have now become the breeding grounds for the most heinous racism and bigotry,” he warned.

“The UN cares nothing for Israeli blood. It is a collaborator with the Nazis of our day. Working to ensure Hamas’s survival and even reward them for murder and rape. I have no words,” Erdan stated.

The mobilization of the UN on behalf of Hamas murderers is nauseating and makes me want to vomit! That's what I said today at the General Assembly. And promoting the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state is a message that terrorism pays off. The UN is the dream come true… pic.twitter.com/c5QcWcGp4n
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) May 1, 2024

“The UN! The General Assembly! The anti-Israel vitriol spread by this organization is what sparked what we are seeing today,” Erdan said as he continued to lambast the general assembly.

“The UN today is the main impediment to peace. You. You are the dream come true for every Palestinian terrorist that seeks to destroy Israel through diplomatic terror. Because without your support, the Palestinians would have had to internalize that negotiations and mutual compromises are the only way forward – that’s how you make peace.”

The UN has singled out Israel while wars are raging in Sudan and Myanmar, Erdan said, calling out the Houthis for dragging Yemen to disaster. He also said that Pakistan is in the process of forcefully displacing 1.3 million people, Afghans are back under the Taliban’s radical control, and Iran is forcibly repressing women.

“But you aren’t interested in criticizing rogue states. You are interested only in smearing the Jewish state,” he continued and told the international UN community that if the United Nations does not make a serious change, “the world will wake up and see the disaster that the UN has become," Erdan continued.

“In the future, students will study the fall of the UN. They will learn of this organization’s moral bankruptcy and blindness. They will be taught that your indifference and hypocrisy is what brought the UN crashing down."

Erdan spoke during a special debate to protest the United States’ decision to veto the Palestinian Authority’s bid to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

The debate came amid concern within the international community about the civilians in Gaza, where according to Hamas, over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war – a number that cannot be independently verified. Israel has said that over 13,000 of the fatalities are Hamas terrorists or allied combatants.

Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour also spoke to the UN General Assembly, accusing Israel of massacring and torturing Palestinians. He also demanded membership for the State of Palestine, as well as calling for the UN to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza.

“As we meet here today, Israel is still trying to push Palestinian people out of geography and out of history, its occupation descending to deeper levels of depravity,” Mansour said.

“An immediate ceasefire long called for by this assembly and demanded by this Security Council is indispensable and cannot be delayed any further,” he said.

“The admission of the State of Palestine to the UN is an unequivocal signal that Palestinian self-determination and statehood are not subject to the whims and will of the extremists in Israel. Our admission to the UN is long overdue. It has been 75 years in the making,” he said.

“We will never accept that the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, to statehood and admission to the UN in any way, would be in any way subject to an Israeli veto,” he said.

“We will not be deterred in our pursuit for freedom,” he went on.

“There are only two paths ahead. One that leads to a shared life and one that leads to common death. The more we wait, the harder it is to embark on the path that leads to just and lasting peace and shared security,” Mansour said.

The Palestinian envoy informed the assembly that the PA plans to turn to UNGA on May 10, and through a resolution, call on the UN Security Council (UNSC) to reconsider its application for admission.

“This is the time for action for accountability... the time to end complicity is now,” he said.

“If you wonder if you are on the right side of history, ask yourself one question: Is what I am doing advocating freedom and peace or enabling continued oppression and conflict?” Mansour asked.

Robert Wood, a U.S. Ambassador to the UN, said he was concerned that UNGA was now holding its second debate on the veto issue, and the meeting should not have been held. However, he noted that while the Biden administration “continues to strongly support a two-state resolution,” it believes that it should be done through direct talks with Israel.

Wood also raised the question of whether the Palestinians have met the technical requirements set out by the UN for statehood, citing that Hamas is “a terror organization,” and still exerting influence in Gaza.

The ambassador said the U.S. veto of Palestinian statehood at the UNSC “does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood, but instead is an acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties,” Wood said.

Before Oct. 7, the U.S. had worked to promote Palestinian statehood through a normalization deal between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Wood said.

“This was based on the US judgment that normalization is the most viable pathway to make progress on the ground,” Wood said.

Speaking to the UN on the issue of Palestinian statehood, Erdan said, “No Palestinian leader, not a single one of them, has even condemned Hamas or their massacre.”

Erdan wrote on 𝕏: “The mobilization of the UN on behalf of Hamas murderers is nauseating and makes me want to vomit! And promoting the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state is a message that terrorism pays off.”

“And, you know by advancing a Palestinian state, you are telling the child murdering, child rapists that terror pays off. You have nothing for the victim but have mobilized for the murderers. You know that the Palestinian Authority doesn’t meet the criteria for statehood.”

“The Palestinians rejected every peace plan,” Erdan added, “because, to them, the existence of a Jewish state is unacceptable. This is not about land.”

Writing on 𝕏 about his speech to UNGA, Erdan posted: “I quoted the Passover Haggadah on the UN stage and told the ambassador: Many have tried to destroy us, from the most powerful empires through the most evil decrees – but they all failed. Because the Jewish people are the people of eternity, and the State of Israel will exist forever!”