NEW YORK: United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres has hits back at Israeli diplomats for ‘misrepresenting’ his statement on the Palestine issue.
The UN chief said that he was “shocked by the misrepresentation by some of my statement”.
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Acknowledging that he had indeed spoken of Palestinian grievances, he stressed he had also said in the UNSC that “the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas”.
Without referring to Israeli diplomats specifically, the UN chief said it was “necessary to set the record straight – especially out of respect to the victims and to their families”.
The UN secretary general firmly rebuked what he described as the ‘false’ claim by top Israeli diplomats that he had sought to justify the “terror attacks” of October 7 by Hamas in a speech he delivered to the security council.
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At the UNSC meeting, the UN chief said that although nothing could justify the ‘appalling’ attacks by Hamas, which triggered the siege and bombardment of Gaza, it was important to recognize they “did not happen in a vacuum” and did not justify the collective punishment of Palestinians.
Following Guterres’ briefing, Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan tweeted that, in effect, the UN chief’s speech had sought to justify Hamas’s brutal assault which left some 1400 dead, mainly civilians.
Meanwhile, Israel seems to have been miffed over the unexpected bashing that it received from United Nations chief Antonio Guterres over the country’s actions in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory of Gaza.
Israel will deny visas to United Nations (UN) officials, its ambassador to the UN has said, as the country’s spat with the international organisation deepens, Al Jazeera reported.
Terming the Guterres’s speech at the UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting as ‘shocking’, which according to many was a “very balanced approach”, Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said: “Due to his [Guterres’s] remarks, we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives.”
The UN chief’s speech that highlighted the ‘truth’ of the Israel-Palestine conflict, left Israel so ‘furious’ that its officials called on the UN chief to resign.
In fact, Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said: “The time has come to teach them (United Nations) a lesson.”