Israel’s Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, has strongly condemned United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for failing to hold Hamas accountable for sexual violence committed during conflicts. In a report submitted to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, the omission of Hamas from the list of groups suspected of sexual violence has drawn the ire of the Israeli government.
The report includes information gathered by UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, in her report published earlier in March. However, the Foreign Ministry noted that Hamas was conspicuously absent from the ‘black list’ of groups suspected of sexual violence during conflicts.
Minister Lapid sharply criticized the report, stating that Guterres had effectively ‘sided with the Hamas rapists and murderers’ by refusing to hold them responsible for the crimes outlined in Patten’s report and declare them a terrorist organization. He went on to compare Guterres’ actions to those of ‘collaborators with the most murderous regimes in human history’, adding that Guterres would have likely refused to denounce Nazi crimes if it suited his political interests.
Lapid concluded by accusing Guterres of transforming the UN into an ‘extreme antisemitic and anti-Israel institution’, claiming that his tenure would be remembered as ‘the darkest in the organization’s history’.
