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Erdan condemned Guterres, calling on him to resign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018His statement that \u2018the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum\u2019 expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder,\u2019 Erdan said. \u2018It\u2019s really (unfathomable).\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the secretary-general sent Fox News Digital a statement defending his speech and rejecting criticism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians \u2014 or the launching of rockets against civilian targets,\u2019 Guterres said in his statement.<\/p>\n
\u2018Indeed, I spoke of the grievances of the Palestinian people, and in doing so, I also clearly stated, and I quote, \u2018But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018And then I went on with my intervention referring to all my positions on all aspects of the Middle East crisis. I believe it was necessary to set the record straight, especially out of respect to the victims and to their families.\u2019<\/p>\n
When asked if Guterres believes the U.N. should sanction Hamas as a terrorist organization, Guterres\u2019 spokesman declined to comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The United Nations system \u2014 its secretariat from the secretary-general to its high commissioner for human rights, its bodies and agencies from the General Assembly and Human Rights Council to the Security Council \u2014 has systematically treated Israel differently than any other state for over half a century,\u2019 Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, \u202ftold Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Discriminated against Israel. Demonized Israel. That demonization is not an abstraction. It\u2019s lethal, as should now be excruciatingly obvious,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
Bayefsky continued, \u2018The U.N. has no definition of terrorism because Islamic states claim targeting the Jewish state and its people is not terrorism. Last week, Navi Pillay, head of a U.N. Commission of Inquiry, presented a U.N. report condemning Israel that put the word terrorism in quotation marks.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018She justified \u2018armed struggle\u2019 against Israel and backed the secretary-general\u2019s contextualization \u2014 rationalization \u2014 of Hamas atrocities. She said, \u2018The secretary-general made a correct statement \u2026 the attack (of Oct. 7) isn\u2019t an isolated incident. It flows from all these violations on both sides.\u2019 This is the face of modern antisemitism \u2014 a straight line from discrimination to death.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018This is a familiar circle of terrorists opposed to a Jewish state and steeped in antisemitism, expecting and finding the U.N. has their back. The secretary-general is a man who has smashed any pretense of a U.N. moral compass. He is a disgrace and lost any entitlement to head an organization theoretically dedicated to human rights,\u2019 Bayefsky stated.\u2019<\/p>\n
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the LA-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, told Fox News Digital he met last week with a U.N. diplomat in the secretary-general\u2019s office \u2018on all these roiling issues. When I saw the secretary-general\u2019s statement, I was shocked and disappointed. My sense is that many seasoned professionals, journalists and, yes, diplomats just don\u2019t get it.\u2019<\/p>\n
He continued, \u2018They want to treat this as just another round of violence between Hamas and Israel. It isn\u2019t, and the Jewish people will reject any efforts to do just that. Instead of berating Israel, the secretary-general should be telling the viciously one-sided UNHRC COI to wrap up their inquisition.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
The U.N. Human Rights Council commissioned a \u2018commission of inquiry\u2019 to investigate mainly Israel\u2019s alleged human rights violations. The COI and its members have been accused of antisemitism by critics.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley in 2018 pulled the plug on U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council because of its alleged bias against Israel. She said at the time the council \u2018has been a protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political bias.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
President Biden rejoined the body in 2021.<\/p>\n
Haley also denounced the U.N.\u2019s Paris-based UNESCO, which supports various educational and cultural projects around the world and has faced criticism for naming ancient Jewish sites as Palestinian heritage sites and granting full membership to the Palestrian Authority in 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018UNESCO is among the most corrupt and politically biased U.N. agencies,\u2019 Haley said after the U.S. announced it would quit the agency in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Biden administration rejoined UNESCO in 2023.<\/p>\n
LIVE UPDATES: ISRAEL AT WAR WITH <\/strong>HAMAS\u202f<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\u2018The Jewish people will not be lectured to. They will not allow Hamas to commit more crimes against humanity. The speechwriters and special rapporteurs live in their bubbles. We live in the real world. It\u2019s not 1943, but 2023,\u2019 Cooper said.<\/p>\n
The Wiesenthal Center is named after the legendary Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal, who survived the death camps of the Hitler movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cooper took the U.N. specialized agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, to task\u202ffor \u2018serving as staging areas for weapons and missile launches.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
The United Nations Security Council has also faced intense criticism for its efforts to sanction Israel. Germany\u2019s former ambassador, Christoph Heusgen, equated Israel with the terrorist movement Hamas during one session, prompting the Wiesenthal Center to list Heusgen\u2019s remarks as one of the worst outbreaks of antisemitism and anti-Israeli conduct in 2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
President Trump\u2019s Middle East\u202fenvoy, Jason Greenblatt, blasted the UNSC in 2019 for impeding peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He called the conduct of the Security Council \u2018the constant drumbeat of tired rhetoric that is designed to prevent progress and bypass direct negotiations. It is time to retire that rhetoric.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n