Knesset Speaker Ohana accuses UN of spreading modern 'blood libel' against Israel with new genocide report

Israeli Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana accused the United Nations of spreading a modern-day blood libel against Israel after the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry released a report alleging that Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip.

"The UN has become a despicable institution where truth is a lie and a lie is truth," Ohana stated at The Jerusalem Post’s Diplomatic Conference at the Friends of Zion Museum Media Center. "This is a modern blood libel, much like those spread by the Nazis," he added.

On Tuesday, the UN Commission accused Israel of carrying out four of the five genocidal acts defined under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”

“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.”

“The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,” UN Commission Chair Navi Pillay stated.

“It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention,” she added, referring to Israel's war against Hamas.

The UN report, which neglected to include information about the Hamas Oct. 7 mass terror attack, accused top Israeli leaders – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant – of having “incited the commission of genocide.”

Unlike the Commission, the UN itself has not formally declared the situation in Gaza a ‘genocide.’ However, in May, the organization’s humanitarian chief urged world leaders to ‘act decisively to prevent genocide.’”

Leaders from Israel, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom have rejected the accusations of “genocide” against Israel.

In January 2024, Herzog described the South African-led genocide legal case against Israel as a “blood libel.”

The Knesset speaker also blasted the UN General Assembly’s recent resolution to support the “irreversible” path towards a “Palestinian state” as a reward for terrorism. The resolution was supported by 142 countries: 12 countries abstained, while 10 countries – including Israel, the U.S., Hungary and Argentina –voted against the resolution.

"It rewards terror, ignores [the Oct 7] massacre and obstructs the path to real peace," Ohana stated.

Ohana specifically criticized European nations for conceding to Hamas and other radical terrorist groups.

"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," Ohana said.

He vowed 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.