Indignant Israeli officials have demanded the resignation of UN Secretary General António Guterres over his remarks at the General Assembly yesterday. In an address which challenged Israel’s victimhood narrative, Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire to end “epic suffering” in the besieged Gaza Strip during Israel’s bombardment which has killed at least 5,791 Palestinians, of whom 2,360 were children, and 1,421 were women.
The UN chief said that he was “deeply concerned about the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza. Let me be clear: No party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law.”
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Along with its military campaign, Israel has also imposed a near-total blockade on Gaza. The indiscriminate heavy shelling of residential areas, schools and hospitals, as well as places of worship, along with the death of thousands of children has been described as collective punishment and a war crime.
“The relentless bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces, the level of civilian casualties, and the wholesale destruction of neighbourhoods continue to mount and are deeply alarming,” said Guterres.
Comments made by the secretary general providing historical context to the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas outraged Israeli leaders.
“It is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” said Guterres. “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.”
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However, even mentioning Palestinian grievances outraged the thin-skinned Israeli officials, who lined up to express their indignation. Israel’s envoy to the UN Gilad Erdan, for example, called Guterres’ comments “shocking” and demanded that the secretary general should resign. Foreign Minister Eli Cohen cancelled a meeting with Guterres, and War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz labelled the UN chief a “terror apologist”. As usual, they took aim at the messenger, rather than try to challenge what he said.
“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,” said Erdan on X. “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.”
Meanwhile, Gantz, who recently joined the government as a member of the narrow war cabinet overseeing the war effort, said, “Dark are the days when the United Nations Secretary-General condones terror.”
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Indications are that Israel will escalate the row. It has already taken steps to punish the UN by refusing a visa to a senior UN official to “teach them a lesson.” The apartheid state is not allowing UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths to enter the country, highlighting once again its tendency to play the victim and smear those who defend human rights.
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