U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is “disconnected from reality” after his office made the “political” decision to place Israel on a “list of shame” of parties suspected of committing sexual violence in conflict, according to Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the global body.
Danon said on Thursday that the Jewish state is freezing relations with the secretary-general’s office.
“We are done with this U.N. secretary-general,” he said.
The global body putting Israel on the list is “a moral disgrace that proves that Guterres has lost all credibility,” the Israeli envoy added.
The list includes Hamas and Islamic State—“the most depraved terrorist organizations in the world,” Danon said.
The Israeli envoy said that the Jewish state submitted evidence and detailed responses to U.N. allegations and invited representatives of the global body to examine the situation on the ground. The United Nations declined the invitation, he said.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres, told JNS that “we’ve seen the comments.”
“For our part, the secretary-general’s door remains open,” Dujarric said.
He downplayed Danon’s announcement, which he characterized as “more symbolic than anything,” and told JNS that “we will continue to work with the Israeli mission, as we do with the other 192 missions.”
JNS sought comment from the Israeli mission about what the envoy’s announcement means practically.
Guterres’s second and final term concludes at year’s end. His replacement has not yet been chosen.
Ties between Israel and Guterres have been particularly strained in the aftermath of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, after which the secretary-general was seen widely as having tried to justify the terror attacks. Israel has since declared him persona non grata.
Last year’s sexual violence in conflict zones report included Hamas on the list of parties “credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms” of conflict-related sexual violence.
Pramila Patten, Guterres’s special representative on that topic, said at the time that Hamas committed systematic sexual violence on Oct. 7 and against hostages held in Gaza thereafter.
Analysts have noted that anti-Israel activists have been pressuring Patten to add Israel to the list, especially in the wake of Hamas’s placement, in the name, according to the anti-Israel actors, of being balanced.
