UNITED NATIONS, United States, Feb 24, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - The Palestinian
envoy to the United Nations on Wednesday urged the Security Council to stop
Israel from discriminating against Palestinians, wearing a black mask
emblazoned with the phrase "End Apartheid."

   Speaking at a monthly meeting on the Middle East, Riyad Mansour evoked the
term "apartheid" 15 times and called on the Council to protect "our long-
suffering people."

   "This Council may not be ready to use the word, but apartheid is, and has
been, for a while now, our reality," said the Palestinian envoy.

   "Israel may be outraged by the word," Mansour said, but he added that
"everyone else should be outraged by the policy."

   "Condemnations alone will never suffice to deter Israel," he said.

   "It is time to translate your words into actions. Actions to end
apartheid."

   In his own address, Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, did not
address the Palestinian's accusations, but rather chose to direct attention
towards Hamas, exhorting the council to recognize the group as a "radical
terror organization" for "deliberately targeting civilian populations all in
the name of advancing the destruction of the State of Israel."

   "Countries all around the world have recognized Hamas as the terror
organization that it is, but sadly, this council has failed to do so," he
added.

   The Israeli ambassador criticized the apartheid messaging after the
meeting, saying in a statement that it is "a joint campaign between 'human
rights organizations' and the Palestinians with the mission of delegitimizing
Israel as a Jewish democratic state."