Meloni declares that Israel have 'crossed the line' in speech to UN in New York

 NEW YORK – A first criticism of Israel, a hard attack on Russia and the usual accusation against the “politicized judiciary.” The speech at the United Nations General Assemby by the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, lasted for 16 minutes.

 To welcome her, the applause of a half empty room, due to the later evening hours. The cornerstone aroudn which the Prime Minister’s speech was constructed was the criticism of multilateralism. She cited Pope Francis and his “world was in pieces”, underlining the bankrupcy of the UN, created in 1945 precisely to avoid new global conflicts: “The question we have to ask ourselves 80 years later is, did we do it? You all know the answer, because it is in the news and it is merciless.”

 The origin of everything, according to Meloni, was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moscow trampled on the United Nations Treaty.” And the escalations in the East “made other conflicts detonate,” including the Hamas attack of Oct. 7. In any case, Israel “have exceeded the principle of proportionality” in Gaza, and this will ensure that Italy voted in favour of some sanctions proposed by the European Union against Tel Aviv.

 “Israel have ended up breaking humanitarian rules causing a massacre amongst civilians. A choice that Italy defines as unacceptable and that will lead to our favourable vote on some of the sanctions proposed by the EU,” Meloni explained.

 The Prime Minister the invited Israel to “get out of the trap of this war: they must do it for the history of the Jewish people, for democracy, for the innocent, for the universal values of the free world of which it is a part of.”

 She said that she believes that “Israel does not have the right to prevent a Palestinian state from being born, nor to build new settlements in the West Bank in order to prevent it. For this reason we have signed the New York declaration for the two state solution,” she explained, however, reiterating that “the recognition of Palestine must have two non-debatable conditions:” the release of all the hostages and the exclusion of Hamas from government roles.

 Just before speaking to the assembly, she made statements to the press about the Flotilla mission to Gaza. The mission, defined as “free, dangerous and irresponsible,” would only be a way to attack her government.

 The fact that it is an international mission, which involves about 50 boats from half of Europe, is not a sufficient reason to think the opposite: the expedition of the Sumud Flotilla, as well as protests and strikes for Gaza, only have the objective of hitting the executives.

 In her speech at the Palazzo di Vetro, moreover, Meloni hoped for "a profound revision of all the tools we have to regulate the relationships between nations and defend the rights of people, including international conventions," including those that "regulate migration and asylum.”

 "They are rules - she continued - sanctioned in an era in which mass illegal migrations did not exist and there were no human traffickers. Conventions that are no longer applicable in this current world which, when interpreted in an ideological and unidirectional way by politicized judiciary, end up trampling on what is right, instead of affirming it."

 "With other European states - she recalled - we have raised this issue and we intend to carry it on. Obviously not to lower the level of guarantees, but to build a system that is in step with the times, capable of protecting fundamental human rights, together with the sacrosanct perogative of each nation to protect their citizens and its boundaries, exercise their sovereignty, and govern the theme of migration, which impacts on the most fragile people. The international community must join together in counteracting the phenomenon of human trafficking.”

 Meloni then attacked "unsustainable ecology" which "has almost destroyed the car sector in Europe, created problems in the USA, caused losses of jobs, weighed down the ability to compete and depleted knowledge. For centurues we wanted to build our systems, but a few decades are enough to find them thrown in the industrial desert."

 In conclusion she mentioned St. Francis, "the most Italian of the saints", inviting the organization to demonstrate courage: "difficult fights are reserved only for those with exemplary courage."

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