'UN is despicable institution where truth is a lie, lie is truth' Amir Ohana tells Post conference

The UN "rewards terror, ignores massacre and obstructs the path to real peace," Ohana said.

The UN's conclusion that Israel is committing genocide is a "modern day blood libel," Speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana said at The Jerusalem Post's Diplomatic Conference at the Friends of Zion media center on Tuesday.

Ohana spoke less than an hour after the publication of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry's report, which decided that Israel has committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention, including the following: killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

'Truth is a lie and a lie is truth' at the UN, Ohana says

"The UN has become a despicable institution where truth is a lie and a lie is truth," Ohana added. "This is a modern blood libel, much like those spread by the Nazis."

He also spoke of the recent United Nations General Assembly vote on Friday which approved a path to Palestine state. The seven-page resolution was endorsed by 142 countries, with 10 against and 12 abstentions.

"It rewards terror, ignores massacre and obstructs the path to real peace," Ohana exclaimed.

"Europe once convinced itself that appeasement could tame aggression. Today, some of its leaders repeat the same mistake, indulging illusions of statehood while Hamas still holds hostages and perpetrates senseless violence against Israeli civilians."

However, he stressed that Israel will "not cower from terror", and "will not be the midwives for a state whose sole goal is to bury us."

"When they write resolutions, we will write the reality on the ground. And while they twist reality to align with their cowardice, we will speak the truth that the only path to peace runs not through stage declarations, but through the defeat of evil."

Ohana concluded by arguing that appeasement always ends in bloodshed and betrayal of the very values and liberties we stand for, and praised the Post for standing for freedom of speech and democracy.