Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said the different standard UN used to describe Jewish violence vs. Palestinian violence was antisemitic.
The United Nations must rescind its incorrect narrative about how settlers in August kidnapped a Palestinian teen, which relied on language that aligns with antisemitic paradigms, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan charged.
Dagan spoke out in a letter he wrote to UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland last week that was sent to the media on Tuesday night.
He took issue with Wennesland’s briefing to the Security Council in New York in August that involved allegations by a Palestinian teen that he had been kidnapped and beaten by a group of settlers.
Dagan said that Wennesland spoke of the alleged attacks by Jews against a Palestinian teen as “heinous” but when he later referenced Palestinians convicted of killing Jews in terror attacks he spoke of them as “martyrs.”
Dagan charged that the different standard Wennesland used to describe Jewish violence versus Palestinian violence was antisemitic.
In addition, Dagan said, the accusations by the Palestinian teen were unsubstantiated and taken out of context.
The army and police in August linked the kidnapping accusations to reports of a stone-throwing incident that occurred near the evacuated Homesh settlement near the northern West Bank Palestinian city of Jenin.
The army at the time said it had received a report that day of Palestinians throwing stones at Israelis near Homesh.
Forces that arrived at the scene saw the Israelis, presumed to be settlers, chasing after a Palestinian teen. The soldiers intervened and returned the teen to his family, the IDF said at the time.
The Palestinian NGO, Defense for Children International-Palestine filmed the teen Tareq Abdel Razzak Mohammed Zubaidi, age 15, describing the event and publicized his narrative.
“On 17 August, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was attacked in the northern West Bank, during which a group of Israeli settlers kidnapped the boy, tied him to a tree, and brutally assaulted, cut and burned him,” Wennesland told the UNSC.
“I am deeply concerned by this heinous act and I expect the Israeli authorities to undertake a swift, thorough and transparent investigation and ensure that the perpetrators are held accountable,” he added. Wennesland made no reference to any reports of a stone throwing connected to the attack.
Dagan disputed Wennesland’s description of the attack. “The Israeli authorities do not seem to have found any evidence that the teenaged member of the rock-throwing gang was “kidnapped” or “brutally assaulted” or burned by any Jewish individual.
Additionally, no reliable medical report on the incident mentions that the minor was “burned” — by anyone,” Dagan said.
In September, prior to Dagan’s letter, Wennesland had already toned down his characterization of the attack when he included it, once again, in his UNSC briefing.
“On 17 August, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was attacked… during which a group of Israeli settlers kidnapped the boy and brutally assaulted him,” Wennesland said. He neglected, for the second time, to reference reports that it was connected to a stone-throwing incident.
In his August UNSC briefing, Wennesland also referenced the Palestinian Authority’s monthly payments to the families of jailed and slain Palestinian terrorists, who he referred to as “martyrs.”
During his September briefing, he dropped the reference to “martyrs” when describing what Israelis have dubbed as the PA’s “pay-for-play” policy.
Still, nothing in his language indicated that the policy involved payments to Palestinians responsible for killing innocent Israeli citizens.
Dagan said that Wennesland’s report had potentially damaging consequences.
“Surely you are also aware that allegations of Jewish and Israeli violence, even when not true, tend to encourage antisemitic acts of violence against Jews, ” Dagan wrote.
“I expect you and all relevant UNSC officials to amend the protocol and to remove the offending antisemitic accusations,” Dagan wrote.
“Please take care that future reports are fact-based and do not include unverified or antisemitic accusations or innuendo as occurred in this fiasco,” he added.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post