Israeli officials have condemned the United Nations (U.N.) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after he appeared to blame Israel for the ongoing war.
“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” Guterres said during a security council meeting.
“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,” Guterres stated.
The Secretary-General noted that “grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” alluding to Israel’s airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
UN envoy Gilad Erdan called for Guterres to resign, arguing that he “is not fit to lead the UN.”
“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,” Erdan said in a tweet. “There are simply no words.”
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.
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) October 24, 2023
I call on him to resign immediately.
There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most…
Guterres asserted that his comments were misrepresented as if he was “justifying acts of terror by Hamas.”
“This is false. It was the opposite,” he stated.
