UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres faced criticism for seemingly shifting blame onto Israel for the Hamas attack on October 7, in which over 1,400 people were killed.
Guterres acknowledged the grievances of the Palestinian people but condemned the collective punishment of Palestinians while also stating that the attacks by Hamas cannot be justified.
Israeli envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, called Guterres’ remarks shocking and accused him of justifying terrorism.
Natasha Hausdorff says UN Secretary General António Guterres should resign after he suggested Israel provoked Hamas's attacks.
“They render him unfit to stay in office. Anyone who calls for a ceasefire before Hamas is destroyed is responsible for more deaths.”@JuliaHB1 pic.twitter.com/gyQL1eGXNF
— TalkTV (@TalkTV) October 25, 2023
Guterres said, “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”
“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” he said, according to a Times of Israel report.
“They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished,” he continued.
“Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”
Mark Regev says Guterres seems to have embraced structual & organisational anti Israel bias at the UN. He said this in reply to a Q about Israel denying visas to UN officials to visit Israel
In all of this its worth remembering Israel has killed 35 UN workers in the last 2 weeks pic.twitter.com/ctaSxDV0Px
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) October 25, 2023
The UN has failed to condemn the Hamas killings and has not supported Israel’s right to self-defense, instead calling for humanitarian pauses in the conflict.
U.N. Gilad Erdan said, “His comments… constitute a justification for terrorism and murder,” Erdan said. “It’s sad that a person with such views is the head of an organization that arose after the Holocaust.”
🇺🇳🇮🇱🇵🇸 United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres; "I am shocked by the misrepresentation of my statement"#Israel #Palestine #Gaza #Gazabombing #Guterres pic.twitter.com/jmzwIuDoF9
— NATO🇺🇸 VS KREMLIN🇷🇺 (@eduinfotech101) October 25, 2023
