Israel brands the UN a ‘stain on humanity’ and bans its officials
The move comes after the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said the Hamas terror attacks did not happen ‘in a vacuum’, comments labelled by Israel’s UN ambassador as a ‘blood libel’.
Israel is banning United Nations officials from entering the country “to teach them a lesson” after the secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, said the Hamas terror attacks did not happen “in a vacuum”.
Guterres started a furious reaction in Israel when he told the UN security council that “it is important to … recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.” He added, however, that no injustice to the Palestinians could justify “the appalling attacks” by Hamas on October 7.
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, described Guterres’s remarks as a “blood libel” and demanded his resignation. “There is no clearer proof that the UN has become a stain on humanity,” he said.
Yesterday (Wednesday) he told Israel’s army radio that visas for UN officials would be withdrawn. “Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives,” Erdan said. “We have already refused a visa for under-secretary- general for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson.”
Israel has long claimed of anti-Israel bias in UN agencies and institutions, in particular the agency that looks after Palestinian refugees and the UN human rights council and its investigative commissions into Israeli conduct in the occupied territories.
Guterres sparked further fury by describing the blockade and bombardment of Gaza as the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”, noting “clear violations of international humanitarian law”.
Eli Cohen, Israel’s foreign minister, jabbed his finger at Guterres and raised his voice as he spoke of the slaughter of children by Hamas terrorists. “Mr Secretary-General, in what world do you live?” Cohen asked.
He subsequently refused to meet with Guterres. “After October 7, there’s no room for a balanced approach,” Cohen said. “Hamas must be eradicated from the world.”
Families of American Israelis taken hostage by Hamas told a press conference in New York that Cohen had pressured them to cancel their scheduled meeting with Guterres in protest.
Ronen Neutra, the father of Omer Neutra, who was taken hostage as a soldier while guarding the Gaza border communities, said that “the decision was taken not to meet with him after his harsh remarks regarding the responsibility of Israel,” but added: “It was not our decision.”
Alana Zeitchik, an American with six family members from Kibbutz Nir Oz held hostage in Gaza, expressed frustration that the row had interfered with their efforts to lobby for their loved ones. “I have no reaction. I don’t care what he said today,” she said of Guterres’s comments.
“I just want the world to come together and help us bring our families home.” Some family members defied Cohen’s pressure and went ahead with their own meeting, unwilling to squander the chance to press their relatives’ case with the top diplomat.
“I just want to get them home,” Zeitchik said. “That’s all I think about. All we want is for them to come back and we want the world to come with us to help us.”
Cohen faced visible anger from some Israeli members of the audience, berating him for putting politics ahead of action to rescue the hostages as well as the intelligence failures about Hamas’s plans.
Event organisers had to intervene to calm the audience as they shouted cries of “shame” and “resign” at Cohen.
Many of those involved in American efforts to assist war victims and hostages were only weeks ago leading protests against the efforts of the Netanyahu government to dispense with checks and balances provided by Israel’s Supreme Court.
Anger at Guterres’s comments cut across political divides. The opposition leader, Yair Lapid claimed Guterres’s speech “provided excuses and rationalisation for barbaric terrorism”.
Avigdor Lieberman, an ultranationalist who served as foreign minister in a previous Netanyahu government but is now in opposition, also called for Guterres’s resignation. “This is about adopting the false Palestinian narrative that the UN has been reinforcing for years,” he said. “Anyone who finds justification for the massacre of women and children is no different from the despicable terrorists of Hamas.”
Amir Ohana, the Knesset speaker, said the secretary-general had “lost any last shred of dignity” and demanded he “apologise to the Israeli victims and families who experienced a modern Holocaust on October 7.”
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