Israel-Gaza War: Israel Calls For Resignation of UN Chief

Israel has called for the resignation of the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres following the latter’s speech at the Security Council on Tuesday.

A visibly angry Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said the UN is failing and Mr Guterres must resign because he has lost all morality and impartiality.

“When you say those terrible words that these heinous attacks did not happen in a vacuum, you are tolerating terrorism…I think the Secretary-General must resign,” Mr Erdan said.

Mr Guterres in his speech to the Security Council on Tuesday condemned the ongoing escalation and called for a cease-fire while reminding the participating parties that the Hamas attack of 7 October did not happen in a vacuum.

“It is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” Mr Guterres told the Council.

However, he added that the 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.”

Mr Guterres’ statement offended Israel’s ambassador so much that he noted that unless the former apologises for his comments, there is no justification for the existence of the UN building.

“This building was established to prevent atrocities, how can the Secretay-General with his words justify in any way the terrible atrocities that happened to innocent civilians,” he questioned.

The UN Chief in his speech noted that “protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than one million people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel, and then continuing to bomb the south itself.”

Israel had ordered the civilian population in Gaza to evacuate but continued to shell the location thereby preventing evacuation from happening.

Mr Erdan took to social media platform X to continue to call for his resignation. “The UN Secretary-General is disconnected from reality and must resign.”

“A Secretary General who seeks justification for the terrible massacre committed in us cannot remain in his position. Every day from now that he continues in his position is a disgrace and proves that the UN has no right to exist,” he wrote.

UN Staff to be denied visa

In a further show of disapproval for the UN, Israel said it will not issue visas to UN representatives.

“Due to his remarks, we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives,” Aljazeera quoted Mr Erdan as telling Army Radio.

“We have already refused a visa for Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths. The time has come to teach them a lesson,” it added.

UN Chief responds

Mr Guterres on Wednesday afternoon at a media stakeout said he was shocked at the misrepresentation of his speech.

“I am shocked by the misrepresentations by some of my statements yesterday in the Security Council as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false, it was the opposite,” he said while repeating parts of his Tuesday speech.