Israel is up in arms after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday said the attacks by Hamas did not happen “in a vacuum”.
And that the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.
Guterres also pleaded for civilians to be protected in the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants, voicing concern about “clear violations of international humanitarian law” in the Gaza Strip.
“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing,” Guterres specifically said.
Unsurprisingly, Israel was outraged by Guterres’s comments. UN envoy Gilad Erdan called them “shocking,” and demanded that the secretary general resign. Foreign Minister Eli Cohen canceled a meeting with Guterres, and Minister Benny Gantz labeled the UN chief a “terror apologist.”
“The UN Secretary-General, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN. I call on him to resign immediately,” Erdan posted on X.
“There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people. There are simply no words.”