Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon announced that relations with the office of the UN secretary-general would be frozen after Israel was added to the blacklist alongside Hamas. "We are done with this UN secretary-general," he said.
Following UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' decision to include Israeli bodies on the blacklist concerning sexual violence in conflict zones, Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon announced that relations with the secretary-general's office would be frozen.
The ambassador announced Thursday that there would be no contact with the secretary-general's office as long as Guterres remains at the head of the organization.
Over the past year, Israel's ambassador to the UN and the mission's staff held a series of meetings with UN representatives and submitted documents, data and detailed responses to all the allegations raised. Despite this, the UN secretary-general chose to advance a political decision and include Israel alongside Hamas and terrorist organizations.
"We are done with this UN secretary-general," Danon said. "Guterres has placed Israel on the same blacklist as Hamas, Islamic State and the most brutal terrorist organizations in the world. This is a moral disgrace that proves the UN has lost all credibility."
The decision comes after weeks of Israeli efforts to block the move. Danon also sent a letter to the Security Council and the UN secretary-general, presenting the findings of the Civil Commission on Hamas' crimes against women and children on Oct. 7, a report based on more than two years of documentation and including recurring patterns of sexual violence against victims from 52 different nationalities.
In Israel, officials identified that alongside the drafting of the report, an international media campaign was being conducted that sought to establish a narrative of "systematic sexual violence" by Israel, including through an op-ed in The New York Times that contained testimonies, some of which could not be verified. Despite all this, the UN secretary-general chose to advance a political decision and include Israel alongside Hamas and terrorist organizations.
