The conflict in Gaza is aggravating relations between the United Nations and Israel. The country’s authorities announced on Wednesday that they would deny visas to representatives of the international organization in retaliation for comments made by UN Secretary-General António Guterres the previous day. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, and Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen called for Guterres’ resignation after he announced Tuesday that Hamas attacks did not occur “in a vacuum,” but rather after Palestinians endured “56 years of oppressive were exposed to occupation”. ”
Israel’s permanent representative to the organization said that his government would not issue visas to the UN representatives because of these words. Erdan, together with UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, confirmed that the visa denial has already been put into practice. “It’s time we taught them a lesson,” the Israeli diplomat said.
Far from retracting his statements, Guterres reiterated them in a statement on Wednesday and then in an impromptu appearance before the Security Council. The UN chief said he was “shocked” by the “misinterpretations” of his Tuesday statement, denounced the “clear violations of international law” in Gaza and reiterated his call for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to alleviate enormous suffering.” . Guterres restored, word for word, the speech he gave on Tuesday.
The UN Secretary-General opened a Security Council meeting on Tuesday dedicated to the situation in the Middle East and delivered a speech in which he condemned the October 7 attack by Hamas but also spoke about the roots of the conflict: “It is important.” We also recognize that Hamas’ attacks did not occur in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to oppressive occupation for 56 years. They have seen their land continually consumed by settlements and wracked by violence. their economy ground to a halt; Their people were displaced and their homes destroyed. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have faded.”
The Israeli ambassador posted a message on X (formerly Twitter) calling for Guterres to resign. “I call on him to resign immediately. There is no justification or point in speaking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people.”
In the communiqué issued before Wednesday’s Council meeting, in which Guterres made no mention of Israel’s resignation request or its decision to block visas for UN staff, the secretary-general expressed surprise at Israel’s reaction: “I am shocked by it.” the misrepresentations of some of my statements…as if I were justifying acts of terror by Hamas. That’s wrong. “It was the opposite.”
Guterres said on Wednesday that in his statement to the Security Council he “unequivocally condemned” the Hamas attacks that killed 1,400 people: “Nothing can beat the deliberate killing, injury and kidnapping of civilians or the firing of rockets at civilians Justify goals.” […] “I believe it is necessary to set the record straight – especially out of respect for the victims and their families.”
In his speech on Wednesday, Guterres raised the political stakes and likely the diplomatic crisis with Israel by endorsing a two-state solution as a possible way out of the war. Far from giving in to pressure, Guterres insisted on international law as protection, recalling that the first rule of any conflict, protecting civilians, could not mean using them as human shields or putting more than a million people in the to have the south evacuated. and then continue bombing the South.
The diplomatic dispute, which threatens to escalate after Guterres’s show of resolve, could undermine the body’s fragile credibility as an arbitrator of conflicts and guarantor of international legality, given its inability to respond to the war in a unified manner.
Israel, which emerged from a United Nations decision — the partition of Palestine under a British mandate in 1947 — rarely abides by Security Council resolutions affecting it, where the U.S. veto generally protects it from the consequences of near-unanimous international condemnations . Israel’s scathing response, which called for the resignation of the secretary-general and limited visa restrictions to UN officials, has galvanized Israel’s political class, which is used to pointing the finger at the United Nations for external blame to search.
Gilad Erdan, one of the most extremist leaders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, has often clashed in undiplomatic ways with the decisions of the United Nations and particularly those of its secretary general. In addition to Erdan, Israel’s foreign minister refused to meet with him and the families of hostages held by Hamas. Former defense minister Benny Gantz, an opposition member and member of the government of national unity, described Guterres as a “terror apologist” in Jerusalem.
In his address, Guterres recalled the “oppressive occupation for 56 years,” the elephant in the room in the long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Hours later, in the face of a growing cascade of insults from Israel, the top UN official announced on social media that the Palestinian people would be completely blocked and bombed in Gaza.”
The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify Hamas’ horrific attacks.
These terrible attacks cannot justify collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 25, 2023
António Guterres criticized Hamas’s crackdown on civilians on Tuesday after a meeting with relatives of hostages captured by the Islamic group, reiterating his call for their release in a short message on his X account: “After a meeting With families whose loved ones were taken hostage, I reiterate my call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held in Gaza. “Nothing can justify Hamas’s killing, wounding and kidnapping of civilians.”
Guterres’ words that particularly worried Israel were uttered at the start of the Security Council meeting, when he pointed out that Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack “did not occur in a vacuum” but followed 56 years of occupation. Ambassador Erdan viewed these statements as justification for the attacks on Israeli civilians. “His statement that ‘Hamas’ attacks did not occur in a vacuum’ expressed understanding for terrorism and murder.” It is truly unbelievable. It is truly sad that the head of an organization that emerged after the Holocaust holds such terrible views. A tragedy!” he said on X.
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