Israel\u2019s relations with the United Nations have sunk to a historic low after a spat between the two escalated this week. <\/p>\n
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres\u00a0on Wednesday invoked\u00a0a rarely used but powerful tool in his determined push for a ceasefire in Gaza, causing outrage among Israeli diplomats. <\/p>\n
Article 99 of the UN charter allows the UN chief to raise to the Security Council\u2019s attention \u201cany issue that may aggravate existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security.\u201d Guterres, in a letter to the 15-member council, used the diplomatic tool and urged for the body to \u201cpress to avert a humanitarian catastrophe\u201d and unite in a call for a full humanitarian ceasefire. <\/p>\n
The step caused outrage among Israeli diplomats. Israel has strongly opposed calls for a ceasefire, arguing that it needs to press on with its offensive in Gaza to eliminate Hamas after its militants attacked the country. on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 240 hostages. Israel\u2019s campaign in Gaza has resulted in the deaths of more than 16,000 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, which compiles its reports\u00a0with data from medical sources\u00a0in Hamas-run Gaza. <\/p>\n
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen lashed out at the secretary-general for his letter, saying the UN chief\u2019s tenure was \u201ca danger to world peace\u201d and that his call for a ceasefire in Gaza amounted to supporting Hamas and the October 7 attack. <\/p>\n
Guterres\u2019 letter was the seventh time in the UN\u2019s 78-year history in which Article 99 had been invoked, and the first time it was used since 1989, when then Secretary-General Javier P\u00e9rez de Cu\u00e9llar urged the Security Council to call for a ceasefire during the Lebanese civil war, according to Daniel Forti, a senior UN analyst at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are at a breaking point,\u201d Guterres told the Council meeting Friday. \u201cThere is high risk of the collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza, which would have devastating consequences\u201d. <\/p>\n
Forti said Guterres\u2019 letter was unlikely to shift political dynamics inside the Security Council, but that it could create more urgency for diplomatic action. \u201cBecause this tool is used so rarely, it does have a moral impact,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan has argued that a ceasefire \u201ccements Hamas\u2019 control of Gaza\u201d and extends \u201cthe suffering of all.\u201d <\/p>\n
He also criticized Guterres for the rare use of Article 99, noting that recent wars in Ukraine, Yemen, and Syria hadn\u2019t prompted the same response. \u201cDespite the immense global impact of other conflicts and far more pressing threats to international peace and security, Israel\u2019s defensive war against Hamas \u2014 a designated terrorist organization \u2014 was the catalyst for activating Article 99. <\/p>\n
Guterres had already faced intense criticism by Israel, which has long felt the UN is biased against it, and multiple Israeli officials have publicly called for his resignation. The UN chief has repeatedly condemned Hamas\u2019 October 7 attack, including in the letter in which he invoked Article 99. <\/p>\n
Later in the day, the US vetoed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in war-torn Gaza Friday, amid growing concern about the civilian death toll there. The resolution, which referenced Guterres\u2019 use of Article 99, was drafted by the United Arab Emirates and co-sponsored by at least 97 other countries. <\/p>\n
A majority of thirteen of the Security Council\u2019s 15 members voted for the brief resolution, with the UK abstaining from the vote and the US exercising its veto power. <\/p>\n
But speaking after the vote, US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood criticized the resolution for failing to mention Hamas\u2019 terror attacks on October 7, among other things. <\/p>\n
One of the Council\u2019s five permanent members with veto power, the US has repeatedly resisted calls for \u201cceasefire,\u201d emphasizing Israel\u2019s right to defend itself. Friday\u2019s vote was the sixth attempt by the council to reach a consensus on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Only one previous vote was successful, which called last month for \u201chumanitarian pauses and corridors\u201d to be established in Gaza. <\/p>\n
The UN Security Council has failed to agree on how to respond to the Hamas attacks and Israel\u2019s subsequent war with the Palestinian militant group, with rival camps within the body, particularly the United States and Russia, clashing. <\/p>\n
Gabriela Shalev, who served as Israel\u2019s ambassador to the UN from 2008 to 2010, said Israel-UN relations are at a historic low now, noting that ties had become strained soon after Israel was established following a\u00a0UN General Assembly resolution\u00a0in 1947. <\/p>\n
Israeli diplomats have used their platforms at the UN to denounce the world body since the war began. Gilad Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, and his staff have been wearing\u00a0yellow Stars of David\u00a0to protest the UN\u2019s alleged inaction on the Hamas attack, evoking memories of Nazi-era\u00a0persecution of Jews. <\/p>\n
He and Cohen, the foreign minister, have been at the center of Israel\u2019s attempts to discredit the UN and its chief. <\/p>\n
On October 24, Guterres delivered\u00a0an address to the Security Council in which he \u201cunequivocally\u201d condemned Hamas\u2019 attack but said that it didn\u2019t happen \u201cin a vacuum,\u201d and that the Palestinians had been \u201csubjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation\u201d\u00a0by Israel. <\/p>\n
That caused fury among Israeli diplomats. In response, Erdan called on the secretary-general to resign and said his country would block visas for UN officials to \u201cteach them a lesson.\u201d He noted that Hamas officials were citing his address as\u00a0justification\u00a0for their attack, and accused the UN of antisemitism, calling for its funding to be stopped. <\/p>\n
Cohen has refused to meet Guterres since then, saying there is \u201cno place for a\u00a0balanced approach\u201d to the October 7 attack, and has repeatedly called on him to resign. <\/p>\n
Shalev, the former Israeli ambassador, said the way Israeli diplomats have been addressing the conflict with the UN is \u201cnot the right way,\u201d particularly calls for the secretary-general\u2019s resignation. Disregarding the opinions of the UN or leaving the organization wouldn\u2019t help Israel, she added. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly and the only body that can fire him or force him to retire is the General Assembly,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s quarrel with the UN has gone beyond the secretary-general. Israeli officials have also criticized the\u00a0World Health Organization,\u00a0UN Women\u00a0and the UN\u2019s Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, more than\u00a0100 UN staffers\u00a0have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began, the largest loss in the world body\u2019s history.\u00a0UNRWA employs more than 10,000 people in Gaza. UN offices across the world observed a minute of silence and flew their flags at half-staff last month to pay tribute to them. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) last month said\u00a0it had recorded collateral and direct damage to more than 60 of its facilities, most of which were schools sheltering thousands of civilians. <\/p>\n
UNRWA has been a major target of Israeli criticism. The organization was founded by the UN a year after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, to provide relief to displaced Palestinians. It defines Palestinian refugees as those who were dispossessed from their homes during Israel\u2019s creation in 1948 as well as their descendants, which qualifies them to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel. Those who fit that definition\u00a0now number 5.9 million.\u00a0Israel has rejected the notion that they could return, arguing that the move would nullify its Jewish character. <\/p>\n
Israel has long accused UNRWA of anti-Israeli incitement, which UNRWA has repeatedly denied, and\u00a0in 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought\u00a0to dismantle the UN body, saying it should be merged with the main UN refugee agency. <\/p>\n
Since the October 7 attack, Israeli journalists and news outlets have refocused their attention on UNRWA and have\u00a0amplified stories\u00a0questioning its role in the war. <\/p>\n
Last month, an Israeli journalist claimed on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that one of the hostage takers in Gaza was a teacher at an UNRWA-run school. That report was picked up by\u00a0Israeli news outlets, prompting the UN agency to issue a statement calling for an \u201cimmediate stop\u201d to the spreading of \u201cunsubstantiated claims\u201d about the organization, saying they amounted to \u201cmisinformation.\u201d <\/p>\n
Another story\u00a0widely picked up\u00a0by Israeli media claimed that the\u00a0Israeli military found weapons\u00a0in Gaza stored below UNRWA boxes, suggesting that the UN agency could be complicit in Hamas\u2019 militancy. Erdan, Israel\u2019s UN ambassador, said the video proved that the UN had become an \u201caccomplice to terror.\u201d <\/p>\n
Albanese has been the subject of a fierce campaign of Israeli criticism. The official was recently\u00a0accused by an Israel government spokesman\u00a0of being \u201ca shameless Hamas-complicit official\u201d who exercises \u201cdisgusting Holocaust inversion.\u201d <\/p>\n
The next day,\u00a0Albanese wrote that anyone working\u00a0on Israel or the Palestinian territories is accused of \u201csupporting terror\u201d or \u201cbeing antisemitic.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe most shameful attacks directed at the UN are the ones against UNRWA, which represents the UN at critical times of war, including with lifeline support,\u201d Albanese added. <\/p>\n
Articles in the Israeli media have also questioned\u00a0UNRWA\u2019s credibility\u00a0and called for a\u00a0\u201crethink\u201d\u00a0of the organization. <\/p>\n
Shalev said there was little Israeli trust in UNRWA. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhere does the humanitarian help that goes to Gaza go to? Does it go to the population or to Hamas?\u201d <\/p>\n
UNRWA has repeatedly\u00a0denied allegations that its aid is being diverted and that it teaches hatred in its schools, and has questioned \u201cthe motivation of those who make such claims, through large advocacy campaigns.\u201d It has condemned the Hamas attack as \u201cabhorrent.\u201d <\/p>\n
Despite the longstanding distrust, Shalev said that anti-UN rhetoric was not the best way for Israelis to respond. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to show the world\u2026 what really happened on October 7,\u201d she said, adding that Israel doesn\u2019t have to \u201cact emotionally\u201d or \u201cmake all these empty declarations\u201d to pursue that goal. <\/p>\n\n
Israel\u2019s relations with the United Nations have sunk to a historic low after a spat between the two escalated this week. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres\u00a0on Wednesday invoked\u00a0a rarely used but powerful tool in his determined push for a ceasefire in Gaza, causing outrage among Israeli diplomats. Article 99 of the UN charter allows the UN <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}