(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the international community applies a double standard to Israel.
Netanyahu and Ban met Tuesday afternoon at the United Nations offices in New York.
According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu “declared that there was no justice in the fact that the standard applied to Israel was different than that applied to other countries.” The statement pointed to the fact that 200,000 civilians have been slaughtered in Syria during its more than three-year-long civil war.
Netanyahu called the U.N.’s conduct toward Israel “disproportionate” and said that Israel did not direct its attacks during the recent conflict in Gaza toward civilians.
“We regret any harm done to innocent civilians,” he said.
The prime minister told Ban, according to the statement, that Hamas had perpetrated a double war crime by using the residents of Gaza as human shields and deliberately firing at the residents of Israel.
Netanyahu also said that he “does not intend to apologize for the fact that Israel has Iron Dome to protect its citizens.”
The conflict with the Palestinians was not about the settlements, Netanyahu said, but about the Jewish state’s right to exist. He said there has been no change in his stance on a demilitarized Palestinian state that would recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and on security arrangements that would allow Israel to defend itself against any threat.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman attended the Netanyahu-Ban meeting.
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