'There is unfair amount of focus on Israel in UN,' says US envoy

The US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, accused the UN of “inordinately over-focus” on Israel, which has killed more than 41,100 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, saying that “there is an unfair amount of focus on Israel”, Anadolu Agency reports.

“I think that we have an Israel problem in the UN. And there is an inordinately over-focus on Israel – even before Gaza – in the UN. It’s something that we have raised on a regular basis,” said Thomas-Greenfield during an event at the Council on Foreign Relations late Thursday.

“There is no other country in the world that has a monthly meeting on the (Security) Council’s agenda going back decades,” the US envoy said, describing the “unfair amount of focus on Israel in the UN” as “problematic”.

Asked about recognising the Palestinian State, Thomas-Greenfield gave an evasive response as she claimed that “a state has certain responsibilities for its people, and I do not believe the Palestinians, as they exist right now, have all of the elements to give it statehood.

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She also bluntly responded to a question about the arrest warrant issued for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, by the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Karim Khan, and said: “We have been clear that we have a problem with the Court’s ruling.”

“Well, let me be clear: We will not arrest him,” she stressed.

On 20 May, ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced that the Court was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, on charges of committing war crimes.

Khan said, at the time, that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed in Palestinian Territories in Gaza starting from at least 8 October.

If arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant would be unable to travel to any of the 124 member countries of the ICC, where its rulings are binding.

Israel does not recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction. The Court, established in 2002, accepted Palestine as a member after 13 years.

The ICC is an independent international body not affiliated with the UN or any other global body.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since 7 October.

The Israeli onslaught has since killed more than 41,100 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 95,100, according to local health authorities.

Gaza lie in ruins, amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on 6 May.

READ: ICC Prosecutor says arrest warrants must be issued with ‘utmost urgency’ for Israel’s Netanyahu, Gallant, plus Sinwar