July 22, 2014
The Honorable Ban Ki-Moon
Secretary General
United Nations
Dear Mr. Secretary General,
We were surprised by the uncharacteristically harsh and one-sided tenor and content of the remarks you made to the press during your visit to Doha on Sunday.
One cannot fail to feel pain and anguish one feels for the suffering befalling the people of Gaza. Yet, at a time when morally responsible leaders are asking "What kind of human being indiscriminately fires thousands of rockets at millions of civilians, deliberately condemns its own people to sure death and devastation and celebrates death?", your remarks strongly suggested that Israel bore the lion’s share of responsibility for the situation.
Gaza is indeed an open wound. One that is infected by the nihilistic ideology of Hamas' religious fanaticism and driven by the irrationality of Hamas' hatred toward Jews and its willingness to sacrifice the lives of its own civilian population, including innocent and defenseless children, by means of terror and violence.
Hamas engages in the basest acts of barbarism toward its sworn enemy, Israel; toward its political rivals, and; toward the people of Gaza causing unspeakable suffering through its deadly terrorist provocations against the civilian population of Israel which, in turn, results in the ghastly deaths and destruction of the human shields Hamas callously leaves exposed for its illegitimate ends.
Anything less than unequivocal condemnation of Hamas and a call for the international community to hold Hamas to account for its inhuman behavior, can be seen as condoning the unspeakable terror Hamas has wreaked on Israel and the tragedy it has visited on the innocents among its own people. We did not hear such condemnation in your remarks.
Indeed Mr. Secretary General, your remarks appeared to create an equivalency between the inhumanity of Hamas and the actions taken by Israel to defend itself.
Simply calling for a halt to the fighting will not bring about an end to the destructive behavior of Hamas. It is up to the international community to ensure Hamas will not use a lull in hostilities to replenish its stockpile of missiles and rockets and restore its terror tunnels. Only in that circumstance will there be a real chance to end the suffering of the people of Gaza and the Israeli people.
We hope you will use your good office to help find a meaningful path to the permanent end of Hamas’ murderous violence.
Sincerely,
Abraham H. Foxman
National Director