Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Friday slammed U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for failing to commend Jerusalem for killing Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar.
Katz charged that the U.N. boss had failed to “welcome the elimination of arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar, just as he refused to declare Hamas a terrorist organization after the October 7 massacre.
“Guterres is leading an extreme anti-Israel and anti-Jewish agenda. We will continue to designate him as persona non grata and bar his entry to Israel,” added the Jewish state’s top diplomat.
UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres did not welcome the elimination of arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar, just as he refused to declare Hamas a terrorist organization after the October 7th massacre. Guterres is leading an extreme anti-Israel and anti-Jewish agenda. We will continue… pic.twitter.com/Twg1O67NRp
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) October 18, 2024
Katz barred Guterres from Israel earlier this month, hours before Rosh Hashanah began.
“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” Katz stated. “This is a secretary-general who has yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on Oct. 7, nor has he led any efforts to declare them a terrorist organization.”
Stéphane Dujarric, Guterres’s spokesman, told reporters that the United Nations regards Katz’s declaration “as a political statement by the foreign minister” that has no practical impact. Guterres can only come to Israel at the Jewish state’s invitation, which was unlikely anyway given the tension between the global body’s head and Israel.
“We continue our contacts with Israel at the operational level and other levels because we need to,” Dujarric said.
In March, Katz said that under the leadership of Guterres, the U.N. had become “an antisemitic and anti-Israel body that shelters and emboldens terror.”
