Many countries have expressed varying degrees of anger over Israel’s killing of over 100 Palestinians since the protests erupted at the Gaza border starting on March 30. They lined up to criticize Israel for the excessive and disproportionate lethal force it used against the protesters which led to the mass carnage on Monday, the day the US transferred its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and which alone left 60 Palestinians dead.

The US, though, took an entirely different tack, particularly its ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley. At an emergency UN meeting of the Security Council on Tuesday Haley said Monday’s bloodbath wasn’t worthy of a UN meeting at all. It was, she said, not worth the Security Council’s time.

So, the 61 people, including eight children, killed and the 2,700 injured on Tuesday were not worthy, in Haley’s view, of at least a debate at the UN. The US ambassador had more important things to talk about, like congratulating Israel for marking the 70th anniversary of its independence. She did not mention any Palestinian deaths or injuries in her remarks, and when it came time for Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations Riyad Mansour to speak, Haley walked out. She also blocked an investigation by the UN into the violence.

Aside from Haley’s stunning callousness, her knowledge of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict ranges from scant to zero, epitomized by her statement that the violence came from those who reject the existence of the state of Israel “in any location”. If Haley and her aides knew their history, they would have known that the PLO recognized Israel up front 25 years ago, under a series of official letters of recognition between Israel and its then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in September 1993. The letters set the stage for, and were in reality, the preamble to the Oslo Accords.

This major concession by the Palestinians makes it ridiculous for anyone to argue that the core of the problem is the Palestinians’ refusal to recognize Israel. The Palestinians did so a quarter of a century ago. Must Haley hear the Palestinian say it again? How many times must the Palestinians recognize Israel? How many times has Israel recognized Palestine? Not once.

Haley was again wide of the mark when she claimed moving the US embassy to Jerusalem was the “right thing to do,” and “reflects the will of the American people”. Notwithstanding that most Americans wouldn’t know where Israel is on the map, a poll released in December showed that 63 percent of Americans opposed the Jerusalem move, including 44 percent of Republicans whose support for Israel is knee-jerk. And as has been stated before, America’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital does not make Jerusalem Israel’s capital. Moving its embassy to Jerusalem does not make Jerusalem Israel’s capital. This is simply the decision of one country.

Haley was partly right about one thing: the protests were not about the US embassy move; the move was the last straw. Tuesday’s butchery was the culmination of the Palestinian effort to retake their land, of the dire water, electricity and medical conditions and travel restrictions Palestinians in Gaza having been facing because of the decade-old Israeli blockade. Almost two million Palestinians live in the strip with a 77 percent poverty rate, high unemployment, confined in what is often described as an open-air prison. Gaza is a tragic descent into a place the UN has deemed will be unlivable in just two years’ time. Which is why Gazans continue to resist, even when facing Israeli bullets. They are willing to risk harm and death.

Haley might believe talking about Gaza is a waste of time but she should get used to it because Gaza will not go away.