by Mathilda Heller
"Anyone who is able to include Israel on the same list as Hamas terrorists and rapists has no sense of morality," said Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon.
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| Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon speaks about a United Nations decision to add Israeli entities to a blacklist of countries that commit sexual violence in conflict zones. (Credit: Courtesy) |
The United Nations has added Israeli entities to a blacklist of countries that commit sexual violence in conflict zones, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The list includes Hamas and other terrorist organizations,
The Israel Prison Service (IPS) will be included on the 2026 list, and other Israeli authorities have entered a monitoring framework for the possibility of future inclusion.
A country or armed group remains on the UN secretary-general’s list for a minimum of one year. Hamas was added last August.
This development follows reports by Pramila Patten, the UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, which determined that there were reasonable grounds for Hamas to have committed acts of rape and sexual violence during the October 7 massacre and the hostages’ captivity in Gaza.
According to Israel, heavy pressure was exerted on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to include Israel on the list following Hamas’s inclusion.
Last August, Guterres placed Israel on notice for potential inclusion in the UN’s formal blacklist of parties credibly suspected of committing patterns of sexual violence in armed conflict, citing significant concerns regarding alleged patterns of abuse. Israel has denied the charges.
Over the past year, several meetings have taken place between Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, his delegation, and representatives of Guterres.
Israel provided documents, data, and a detailed response to all the claims raised in the reports and drafts that it received. In addition, Israel invited UN personnel to visit the sites of alleged atrocities and to closely examine the false claims.
Nevertheless, despite the information provided, Guterres has chosen to include Israel on the list.
Israel freezes relations with UN Secretary-General's Office
In response, Israel has announced the freezing of relations with the UN Secretary-General’s Office and the cancellation of Patten’s planned visit to Israel.
Israel said it would not maintain contact with the UN Secretary-General’s Office as long as Guterres heads the organization.
“The UN secretary-general has put Israel on the same blacklist as Hamas, ISIS, and the most depraved terrorist organizations in the world,” Danon said. “This is a moral disgrace and a complete collapse of any credibility left to the UN.”
Israel has cooperated with the UN, provided information, and acted with full transparency, he said.
Guterres chose to ignore the facts and “continue the campaign of incitement and lies against Israel,” Danon said.
“Anyone who is able to include Israel on the same list as Hamas terrorists and rapists has no sense of morality,” he said. “Antonio Guterres, who justified the October 7 massacre, whitewashed the involvement of UNRWA employees in the massacre, and led the organization to an unprecedented low, is using the last months of his term to advance political and false accusations against Israel.”
Guterres’s term ends on December 31, meaning that the inclusion of Israel on the list comes amid a leadership contest.
Israel considers the decision to be Guterres’s attempt at a “last hurrah,” a person familiar with the matter told the Post.
The UN is facing the most severe liquidity crisis in its 80-year history, including $1.56 billion in unpaid dues by member states.
New York Times op-ed perpetuates accusations of sexual violence
Furthermore, more than two weeks ago, The New York Times published a highly controversial op-ed by journalist Nicholas Kristof about the alleged “pattern of widespread sexual violence against [Palestinian] men, women, and even children – by [Israeli] soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency, and, above all, prison guards.”
Kristof admitted that “there is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes,” but he said the security apparatus has created a culture in which “sexual violence has become one of Israel’s ‘standard operating procedures.’”
Kristof wrote his op-ed based on “conversations with 14 men and women who said they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces.”
He cited one alleged prisoner, who said IPS officers forced items up his rectum.
Another Gazan prisoner said he had been “held down, stripped naked, and as he was blindfolded and handcuffed, a dog was summoned,” before the dog attempted to “mount him.”
Kristof also accused the US of being “complicit” in the alleged sexual violence, as “American tax dollars subsidize the Israeli security establishment.”
The Foreign Ministry said the NYT article was “one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press.”
“In an unfathomable inversion of reality, and through an endless stream of baseless lies, propagandist Nicholas Kristof turns the victim into the accused,” it said. “Israel – whose citizens were the victims of the most horrific sexual crimes committed by Hamas on October 7, and whose hostages were later subjected to further sexual abuse – is portrayed as the guilty party.”
The article’s publication was “no coincidence” and forms part of a “false and well-orchestrated anti-Israel campaign aimed at placing Israel on the UN secretary-general’s blacklist,” the Foreign Ministry said.
It denounced the NYT for publishing the op-ed and not the findings of Israel’s Civil Commission into Hamas’s systemic violence during and since the October 7 massacre.
This two-year independent investigation into the sexual and gender-based crimes committed during the October 7 massacre and against hostages in Hamas captivity found that sexual and gender-based violence was systematic, widespread, and integral to the attack.
While it is not clear, the source told the Post that the NYT article might have given the UN additional power to make the move to blacklist Israel.
'A major blight on the UN'
US-based human-rights advocate, attorney, and policy expert Elliot Malin told the Post the decision was a “major blight on the UN, the entire professional apparatus, and an indictment on its ability to objectively weigh in on conflict.”
“It’s directly contrary to the purpose of the UN and its establishment,” he said. “In an institution where they commonly single out and demean a democracy while ignoring the atrocities of totalitarian states, even elevating them to prominent roles in UN appendant bodies – this is just another demonstration of the inability of the UN to act in a fair and balanced manner.”
Malin condemned the way in which international institutions are being “weaponized for lawfare.”
“If democracies want the UN to survive, they must act to clean house,” he said. “Antonio Guterres must be forced to retract this reprehensible action, and the UN must be completely audited for systemic bias.”
“Every democratic state should withhold its citizens’ tax dollars from going to the UN until this is retracted and the house has been cleaned,” Malin said.
Mathilda Heller
Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-897572
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