Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan took to social media to condemn the recent outrage of a senior United Nations official who said in a recent television interview that Hamas is a political group.
Mr. Erdan criticized Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA), calling his organization “an organization that condones terrorism, promotes Hamas, and blames victims.” .
Erdan told X: “The UN’s pro-Hamas stance has finally been exposed on live TV. Isn’t the brutal murder of hundreds of civilians terrorism? Isn’t the systematic rape of women terrorism? Genocide of Jews? Isn’t this attempt terrorism?”
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“You are not a ‘humanitarian’,” Erdan’s post concluded. Unfortunately you are a terrorist collaborator. ”
Mr Griffiths said in an interview with Sky News earlier this week that the jihadist movement Hamas is “not a terrorist group to us”. He added: “Of course, you know, this is a political movement.”
Griffiths’ comments came in response to a question about whether it would be feasible for Israel to oppose Hamas becoming part of a future Palestinian government.
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Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, speaks at a Security Council meeting on maintaining peace and security and food security in Ukraine, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City on July 21, 2023. Attend. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket, Getty Images)
“Without a negotiated solution that includes their aspirations, it will be extremely difficult to eliminate these groups,” a U.N. official said.
After Griffith’s seemingly pro-Hamas statement sparked outrage in Jerusalem and on social media, he rushed X to amend his statement. “To be clear, Hamas is not on the list of groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United Nations Security Council,” he wrote to X.
Mr Griffiths added: “As I have said all along, this does not make their act of terrorism on October 7 any less horrifying or reprehensible.”
When asked whether Mr Griffiths had the full confidence of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, a UN spokesperson referred Fox News Digital to a statement from Mr Guterres’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
“For the Secretary-General, he and many other senior United Nations officials, including Martin Griffiths, have unequivocally condemned the heinous terrorist attack carried out by Hamas on 7 October and said it could not be justified. That position has not changed. As we have said many times here, and as the Secretary-General himself said some time ago, the designation of an entity as a terrorist group or organization is It can only be done by the Security Council,” Dujarric said.UN reporters
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Palestinian Hamas terrorists are seen during a military show in the Bani Suheira neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza Strip, July 20, 2017. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
A UN spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s question about whether the secretary-general would recommend that UN member states designate Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz Posted in X In English: “@UNReliefChief denies that Nazi organization Hamas is a terrorist organization and calls it a ‘political movement’. He should be ashamed.”
Israeli government officials and military spokesmen have referred to Hamas as comparable to the Islamic State and Hitler’s movement since the group invaded Israel. Hamas killed more than 30 Americans on October 30th. 7 with these attacks.
“The United Nations is hitting rock bottom every day,” Katz wrote in Hebrew, pointing to remarks by Griffiths as well as Guterres. “We will eliminate Hamas with or without Hamas,” he said, pledging that “Jewish blood is not cheap.”
National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby during a press conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Monday, January 29, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Yuri Gripas/Abaka/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In response to a question about Mr. Griffith’s comments on Thursday, the White House national security and communications adviser said: John Kirby told reporters.“Hamas is a terrorist organization. We’ve been saying that. That’s true. It’s just that. And to see that clearly, you don’t have to look any further than what they did on October 7th. No. And my thoughts are.”
Anne Baevsky, director of the New York-based Touro Institute for Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Fox News Digital: “This is another cover-up by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Here are the real facts: What does the United Nations do? None,” he said. Definition of Terrorism The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which represents all 56 Islamic countries, has been unable to adopt a comprehensive convention for the prevention of terrorism through decades of negotiations because it believes the killing of Israelis does not count. . As a result, the Security Council has never condemned Hamas before or since October 7. ”
Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip. Attended a ceremony commemorating the 35th anniversary of the founding of Hamas. December 14, 2022. (Photo: Majidi Fatih/TPS)
“At the same time, what prevents the head of an organization theoretically dedicated to human dignity, peace, and human rights from condemning Hamas as a genocidal, anti-Semitic terrorist organization?” There is no such thing. If we don’t do that, we can’t do anything.” It is defending Hamas, not moral or political leadership. ”
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“If you can’t define or name your enemy, you can’t defeat your enemy, and that’s exactly where we are,” Baevsky said. “We are trying to bypass this,” he concluded. Although he is a civilian, there are rapists and murderers around him. ”
Even before the scandal broke, UNRWA, the UN agency that deals with Palestinians, and its staff were embroiled in accusations that some of its staff took part in the October 7 Hamas massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel. It was
