Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, has requested the resignation of the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, after a speech he gave at a meeting of the Security Council, where he suggested that the terrorist group had reasons to cause the death of more than a thousand Israeli soldiers and civilians, due to the “suffocating occupation” to which it has been subdued the Palestinian people. Erdan announced in an interview with an Israeli radio station that his country had denied visas to UN Deputy Secretary-General Martin Griffiths and would no longer issue visas to UN representatives: "Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to U.N. representatives … The time has come to teach them a lesson", he said.
“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled, their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing,” said the UN Secretary-General.
Shortly after, Erdan took to social media to express his displeasure and call for Guterres’ immediate resignation.
“The shocking speech by the UN Secretary-General (...) proved conclusively (...) that the Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region and that he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner. His statement that, “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum” expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder. It’s really unfathomable. It’s truly sad that the head of an organization that arose after the Holocaust holds such horrible views. A tragedy!” he added.
The shocking speech by the @UN Secretary-General at the Security Council meeting, while rockets are being fired at all of Israel, proved conclusively, beyond any doubt, that the Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region and that he views the…
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) October 24, 2023
Erdan said the speech serves as evidence that Guterres is unfit to lead the UN and should, therefore, step down.
“I call on him to resign immediately. There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people. There are simply no words,” he posted.
The @UN Secretary-General, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN.
I call on him to resign immediately.
There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most…
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) October 24, 2023
Does the UN have an anti-Israel bias?
This is not the first time Israeli officials have claimed that the UN has shown some partiality towards Palestine.
Erdan himself has denounced that the international organization has turned a blind eye to Hamas’s weapons and the murders it commits by refusing to recognize the Palestinian group as a terrorist group.
Another aspect that drew attention and generated controversy was the position that the UN took shortly after the Hamas attack, sharing a video through their social networks where Ambassador Zaman Mehdi, Pakistan’s deputy representative to the UN, criticized Israel for its “illegal foreign occupation” and downplayed the human losses suffered by the Jewish nation.
“Regrettably, this huge loss of lives and unabated violence is a sad reminder of more than seven decades of illegal foreign occupation, aggression and disrespect for the international law,” Mehdi said shortly before calling for a minute of silence “for the loss of innocent lives in the occupied Palestinian territory and elsewhere.”
