RT
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer received fierce backlash on Thursday as he defended his country’s Operation Protective Edge offensive on Gaza during a Twitter Q&A.
According to the latest Pew Research polling on the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, Americans still heavily lean toward sympathizing with Israel. Yet Dermer urged those who oppose Israel’s military actions to ask him any questions so he could clarify his government’s position. So they did, but the result was probably not the one that Dermer expected.
What response do you expect when you steel my land, destroy my house and kill my kids? #AskDermer
— Ahmad Enaya (@Ahmad_Enaya) July 17, 2014
After killing so many kids in #Gaza can you see into your own child’s eye when you read him bedtime stories? #AskDermer
— Sameer Bhat (@sameerft) July 17, 2014
How do justify killing over 200 and injuring roughly 2,000, when 80% of the victims are civilians? #Askdermer @ambdermer
— Global Revolution (@GlobalRevLive) July 17, 2014
While enacting policies of occupation and ethnic cleansing, does your spine ever shudder with the shame of your ancestors? #AskDermer
— Sarah Slamen (@VictorianPrude) July 17, 2014
Israel’s offensive on Gaza that has killed 220 Palestinians as of Wednesday, 80 percent of which have been civilians, according to the United Nations. Meanwhile, only one Israeli has died as a result of rockets shot into Israel.
#AskDermer trended worldwide on Thursday, as a significant number of questions related to the four Palestinian children killed Wednesday on a Gaza beach by shelling from Israeli Defense Forces.
#AskDermer what happened when @IDFSpokesperson murdered 4 Palestinian kids in front of a #Gaza hotel of journalists http://t.co/oPXue23MuM
— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) July 17, 2014
Were you very disappointed there happened to be journalists on the scene when you were butchering kids on that beach? #AskDermer“
— PMbeers (@PMbeers) July 17, 2014
Isn’t bombing hospitals and children on beaches an act of terrorism? #AskDermer
— Kim Koyama (@TOactivist) July 17, 2014
Dermer largely steered clear of tough questions. Some of the more substantive of his answers in the session regarded settlements rights of Jews and Palestinians, and claims of Israeli genocide of Palestinians.
.@NTagouri Only ones calling for genocide is Hamas. http://t.co/XiFltuEMeX People entitled to their opinion, not their own facts.
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) July 17, 2014
.@AmbDermer Why do Jews have a birth-right of return after 1,900 years, but Palestinian non-Jews don’t after less than 65 years? #AskDermer
— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) July 17, 2014
.@OccupyWallStNYC There wouldn’tt be a single Palestinian refugee today had the Arab world accepted the UN’s 2 state solution in 1947
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) July 17, 2014
.@OccupyWallStNYC UN called 4 Jewish state & Arab state. It was a recognition of historical/legal/moral right of Jewish ppl 2 their homeland
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) July 17, 2014
.@OccupyWallStNYC Jewish ppl are not foreign colonialists in land of Israel. Jews have been living in land contiunously since biblical times
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) July 17, 2014
.@OccupyWallStNYC When Jews come 2 Israel, they’re coming home. Hope 1 day, Palestinian refugees will have a home of their own next 2 Israel
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) July 17, 2014
Dermer couldn’t help but leave the session with a dose of snark.
Thanks everyone for those softballs. Looking forward to some even tougher questions next time. #AskDermer
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) July 17, 2014
