H.E. Mr. Boaz Modai:

I do not know. It is not up to me and I do not work for the court. We have nothing to worry about because our actions were in self-defence. Perhaps some members think not every country has the right to defend itself, but according to our understanding, Israel deserves that right at least.

The question was asked of whether the blockade caused misery for people. We must remember how this started. In 2005, Israeli withdrew unilaterally for peace purposes from the whole Gaza district. I mentioned this already and members can read about it in my submission. Very soon afterwards, the flow of armaments for Hamas in Gaza came through the tunnels, specifically from Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, as well as through vessels. There is no port in Gaza. If the port is to be used to receive armaments and ammunition, there will be no port. I have mentioned time and again the issue of demilitarising Gaza. If the area were demilitarised, the chance of a port would be high. Perhaps there could even be an airport - I do not know. If Palestinians feel that misery and suffering was caused, they should look to Hamas, which caused it.

Signing and implementing an agreement is right, but there are two sides. One cannot expect Israel to allow something which would endanger its security. The Senator may believe that Israel is not ready to give one inch, but we have proven otherwise many times in the past. We gave the Sinai Peninsula, which is three and half times as big as Israel, as well as fields of oil to the Egyptians, only because we believed Anwar Sadat when he spoke about peace. We knew Egypt to be a serious country and that when we signed a peace agreement, it would be respected. That is not the case today with Hamas or yet with the Palestinian Authority, although I hope that one day we will be able to trust them completely. When members speak about not implementing the Oslo Accords, I repeat that there were two sides.

There was a question of whether Israel would continue building in the occupied territories. We should ask ourselves why we use the wrong terminology and call these the "occupied territories". How is it occupied?