United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks to members of the Security Council during a meeting to address the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, April 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced on Wednesday that United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is “persona non grata in Israel” and banned from entering the Jewish state because of his failure to unequivocally condemn Iran by name for launching a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday.
“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” Katz wrote in a post on X/Twitter where he announced the move to bar Guterres.
Katz also lambasted the UN chief for his response to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
“This is a Secretary-General who has yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on October 7, nor has he led any efforts to declare them a terrorist organization,” Katz added. “A Secretary-General who gives backing to terrorists, rapists, and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran — the mothership of global terror — will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN. Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres.”
Iran, the chief international sponsor of Hamas, launched 181 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, forcing all of Israel’s population of 10 million people to hide in bomb shelters. The state of Israel said only one person was killed in the missile attack — Sameh Asli, 37, a Palestinian from Jabalia in the Gaza Strip. He was killed by missile shrapnel in the West Bank village of Nu’eima, near Jericho, during the attack.
Guterres took to X/Twitter on Tuesday to comment on Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel, but he failed to name Israel or Iran in his remarks.
“I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation. This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire,” Guterres wrote in his post, which has been viewed by 9.5 million people.
French-Jewish philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy tweeted in response: “No, @antonioguterres. What should be condemned is not ‘escalation’ but ‘#Iran.’ By failing to say that, the #UN (and you) prove, once again, to be blind, deaf, useless, shameful and devoid of any moral sense. #Israel has to win.”
Arsen Ostrovsky, a human rights lawyer and CEO of The International Legal Forum, commented on Guterres’ post saying, “You pathetic, disgusting coward. You could not even mention Israel. You are beyond redemption.”
Others accused the UN chief of “always being on the side of the terrorists” and “covering up for the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an internationally designated terrorist organization] in Iran, which you conveniently are unable to even mention.”
“There will be a ceasefire when the [Iranian] regime is where it belongs — in the dustbin of history, and the Middle East is free,” another X user told Guterres.
A post on X by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Photo: Screenshot
Guterres has been condemned by Israeli officials in the past and even faced pressure to resign after he seemed to blame Israel for the Oct. 7 massacre, during which Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages back to the Gaza Strip during their rampage across southern Israel. There are still 101 hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas.
Israeli officials have often accused the UN of having a bias against the Jewish state, and Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon recently called on the international body to apply more sanctions against Iran until its “capacity to support terror is completely diminished.”
The UN General Assembly passed with an overwhelming majority last month a non-binding Palestinian resolution demanding that Israel end its “occupation” of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem within 12 months.
