Israel has declared the UN Secretary-General António Guterres a “persona non grata” and banned him from entering the country, and said he would be remembered “as a stain on the history of the UN”, Report informs via The Guardian.
Announcing the decision on social media, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said:
"Today, I have declared UN Secretary-General António Guterres persona non grata in Israel and banned him from entering the country. 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.
This is a secretary-general who has yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on October 7, nor has he led any efforts to declare them a terrorist organization.
A secretary-general who gives backing to terrorists, rapists, and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran – the mothership of global terror – will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN.
Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres."
In October 2023 Guterres said “I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented October 7 acts of terror by Hamas in Israel. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets. All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions.”
However, he angered Israelis by, in the same speech, saying “It is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”
Guterres continued on that occasion to say Palestinians “have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
Last month UN members overwhelmingly backed a non-binding motion calling for Israel to end its near six decade long occupation of the West Bank.