Gilad Erdan: A provocative Israeli settler who thrives on attention
9 Min Read
Gilad Erdan seizes every opportunity to spotlight "Israel's" attention-seeking agenda.
-
Meet Gilad Erdan, the provocative Israeli settler (Hady Dbouk, Al Mayadeen English)
An illegal Israeli settler, a hypocrite, and a "drama king". Meet Gilad Erdan, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN who takes every chance he gets just to show how "Israel" is running on some attention-seeking policy.
Erdan's many attempts to gain the so-called international community's attention are endless and sometimes, they have backfired, turning him into a mockery on social media platforms.
In June 2022, Erdan was elected as Vice President of the General Assembly. The decision was met with harsh criticism from pro-Palestine activists who deemed it "provocative" to the Palestinian people, given the ongoing Israeli crimes against them.
After his appointment, Erdan considered that “this triumph sends a clear message to our enemies that they will not prevent us from participating in leading roles at the UN and in the international arena."
It's important to note that his appointment came at a time when many rights groups were urging the UN to investigate Israeli human rights against the Palestinians especially the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin in May 2020.
Erdan now is the Israeli Ambassador to the UN and is setting yet another humiliating example.
Quick, make a scene
In Erdan's numerous appearances and speeches at the UN, the Israeli Ambassador always appears to have something to say or do, leading to a catalog of his actions.
Here are some of Erdan's "15 minutes of fame," or should we say shame:
Palestinians are 'terrorists' because they are holding 'rocks'
“Would you consider it a terror attack if a rock like this was thrown at your car while driving with your children?” Erdan asked the UN Security Council back in January 2022 while holding a rock in his hands. “Would you, at the very least, condemn these brutal terror attacks carried out against Israeli civilians by Palestinians?... Rocks can and do kill.”
Erdans stated, during his speech, that “a terrorist is not only one with a gun. A terrorist is not only one with a bomb…" Here's where things start to take a downturn. By making this statement, Erdan essentially acknowledged, albeit unintentionally, that Israeli settlers, including himself, are terrorists since settlers always seem to carry guns. Not only this, but Erdan, with his own equation, unknowingly admitted that Israeli occupation forces are terrorists: After all, are they not the ones who possess guns and bombs that they use daily to kill innocent civilians in Palestine?
During the same speech, Erdan accused the UNSC of being hypocritical for not condemning "Palestinian terror". He stated that "Palestinian acts of terror and incitement are whitewashed."
The stone in Palestine became a symbol and the only means of resistance - at the time - for the Palestinians since the 1987 Intifada (uprising). The uprising was a kind of revolution against the Israeli occupation of Palestine, so the Palestinians, having nothing to defend themselves with, used the stone in the face of the heavily armed Israeli forces.
What’s better, for an Israeli, than to tear up a human rights report?
In October 2021, Erdan stood at the podium of the UN General Assembly in New York and tore up the Human Rights report from the rostrum of the International Organization's General Assembly in New York.
"For just as that 1975 resolution, equating Zionism with racism, was itself a gross form of anti-Jewish racism, which has no place in this international body, so too, the Human Rights Council’s obsessive anti-Israel bias, embodied, once again, by this report, should have no place in anybody concerned with human rights, security or peace," Erdan said.
He added that he is mimicking what the former ambassador, Chaim Herzog, did when he tore up the "anti-Semitic" resolution that considered "Zionism a form of racism."
The finding of an investigative committee found in the report that the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip back in 2021 killed 260 Palestinians, including 7 children, 40 women, and 16 elderly. The report condemned “Israel” for its brutal attacks on innocent civilians.
In addition, the UNHRC condemned the “construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying power,” referring to the separation barrier that cuts deep into the West Bank and the Palestinian territory that “Israel" occupied in 1967.
Watch | #UN Israeli Representative tears up a copy of the annual Human Rights Council report. #Palestine pic.twitter.com/oVJWXyFAF5
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 30, 2021
It seemed that Erdan could not bear to hear the truth that the report held and decided to tear up the report, completely disregarding its incriminating content. Moreover, the Israeli diplomatic chose a non-diplomatic way in order to condemn a report; he opted to make a scene to give the news websites something to talk about.
Lighting candles and walking away
On April 2023, the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations declared that "Israel will not take part" in the UN Security Council session that was set in order to discuss the Palestinian cause, alleging "extreme bias" and claiming that holding the meeting on “Israel’s” "Memorial Day" was disrespectful.
Erdan read loudly the names of Israeli soldiers the Israelis are commemorating, lit a candle, and walked away, exiting the hall.
But before leaving the room, Erdan claimed, “If this council refuses to respect their [fallen soldiers] memory, I will dedicate this speech to their memory. I light this candle, Mr. President, to honor them, and may their memory be blessed. I'm sorry, but I refuse to spend this sacred day listening to lies and condemnation. This debate disgraces the fallen, and Israel will not take part in it.”
See more: ‘Israel’ walked out of UNSC session citing 'bias'
Erdan made the effort to get the candles and came all the way to the UN hall just for him to leave immediately afterward. Erdan seemed to be completely ignorant of the fact that more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcefully displaced from their homelands in Palestine back in 1948 Nakba (catastrophe) by the Zionist gangs in order to pave the way for the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Would Erdan read out loud the number of Palestinians that were killed, displaced, and injured during the 1948 Nakba? Well, at this point, the answer, "No", goes without saying.
Last but not least: The one-man show
During his last "make a scene" moment, the Israeli occupation Ambassador to the UN held up a photo of 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini titled ‘Iranian women deserve freedom now!’ during Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s speech at the UNGA.
Videos circulated on social media platforms showed the Israeli ambassador being kicked out of the UN hall by security forces.
Ironically, Erdan represents an entity that brutally assaults women, holds them behind bars in dire circumstances, forces them to strip naked in front of children, and murders them.
Anyone who bears a witness to Israeli crimes against Palestinian women would definitely not buy Erdan’s act. Just a simple comparison between Erdan’s acts and those of the government he represents is clear proof that Erdan is delusional or detached from reality.
"Israel's" hypocrisy at the #UN halls is always loud and clear.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) September 20, 2023
Israeli occupation Ambassador to the #UnitedNations, Gilad Erdan, raised a protest photo during the speech of #Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) with the image of… pic.twitter.com/kbB9gxboAU
A report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz exposed how Palestinian women were forced into stripping naked during a raid on a residential building in al-Khalil by Israeli occupation forces.
Numbers show that between 2000 and 2005, 67 Palestinian women were forced to give birth at Israeli checkpoints, resulting in the murder of 36 babies, not to mention the endless torture methods that Palestinian female prisoners endure in Israeli jails.
Read more: A guide to Palestinian women suffering in Israeli prisons
“Israel” can never be described as an advocate for any women’s rights. The same entity that murders, tortures, assaults, and imprisons women can never be an advocate for women’s rights.
#Palestinian female prisoners cried for help in an audio message sent from behind the bars of Israeli "Damon" prison. They demanded the Palestinian people to stand and defend their rights. This comes after Israeli forces violently beat and abused the prisoners yesterday. pic.twitter.com/vXhDUfBx3y
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) February 1, 2023
Israeli settler with a suit and tie
Erdan is reportedly living on an ethnically cleansed Palestinian land. “Ganei Tikva”, where Erdan resides, along with many occupied cities, was once part of the Palestinian village of al-Abbasiyya.
The indigenous population of the village was ethnically cleansed on May 3, 1948, by a Zionist gang as the village was mostly destroyed. This all happened for the sake of the establishment of “Israel”.
Erdan is an illegal Israeli settler whose parents came from Romania and Hungary to settle in occupied Palestine. He gets to wear a suit and tie and speak into a microphone in front of the international community to represent “Israel”. He gets to condemn human rights reports and sometimes tear them to pieces. He gets to take a stance and walk out of the room once the words start to make no sense to the occupation; i.e. once the truth comes out.
Maybe it’s time for the international community to hold in Erdan’s face the many signs demanding to free Ahmad Manasra, to free all the prisoners from Israeli jails, to remove all the illegal settlements, to demolish the endless Israeli checkpoints, to end the Israeli occupation, and to free Palestine!
