“We are done with this Secretary General,” Danon said on the X network. The Israeli mission specified that this meant freezing its relations with the UN Secretary General’s office until the end of Guterres’ term, ie until December 31 of this year.
The UN has included Israeli entities, including the Israeli prison service, on a list of countries and organizations suspected of sexual violence during conflicts. Terrorists from Hamas or the Islamic State (ISIS) are also on the list.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Danon criticized that Israel was put on the same list as terrorist organizations. According to him, this is a politically motivated step and a “moral failure” of the UN.
He added that Israel cooperated with the UN, provided information and acted completely transparently. According to him, however, the Secretary General decided to ignore the facts and “continue the campaign of inciting lies against Israel”.
The news comes shortly after the publication of a controversial comment by journalist Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times (NYT), who, based on interviews with 14 Palestinians, described alleged sexual violence by Israeli soldiers, settlers and members of the security forces. Kristof argues that the security apparatus created an environment in which similar violence became part of common practice.
At the same time, the Israeli ministry criticized the NYT for publishing this commentary, but not the findings of an Israeli citizens’ commission investigating systematic violence by Hamas during and after the October 7 attack.
