{"id":138175,"date":"2026-05-31T01:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T01:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/138175\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T01:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T01:20:10","slug":"israel-to-cut-ties-with-u-n-chief-over-its-inclusion-on-sexual-violence-blacklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/138175\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel to Cut Ties With U.N. Chief Over Its Inclusion on Sexual Violence Blacklist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations said Thursday that his country would cut ties with the U.N. secretary general and his office, after the office\u2019s decision to include Israel on an upcoming sexual violence blacklist<\/a> over alleged sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees.<\/p>\n

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador, said that he had been officially informed by the secretary general\u2019s office that Israel and its security services would be included in an annual report on conflict-related sexual violence. He called the decision \u201cdisconnected from the facts and reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamas is also included on an associated list of countries and groups<\/a> accused of using sexual violence as a weapon of war.<\/p>\n

Mr. Danon denounced the decision, denied the accusations and accused the U.N. chief, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, of lying and of choosing not to fully investigate claims against Israel. \u201cTo put us and Hamas terrorists on the same list,\u201d Mr. Danon said in a video. \u201cThat\u2019s unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friction between Israel and the United Nations has intensified in recent years, with Israel\u2019s foreign minister, Israel Katz, declaring Mr. Guterres persona non grata<\/a> in 2024. It was a rare diplomatic designation that reflected Israel\u2019s broader tensions with the United Nations following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel that set off the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Mr. Guterres\u2019s term as U.N. chief will end this year, and it is not clear what Israel\u2019s announcement that it is severing ties with his office means, considering the already dire state of their relations.<\/p>\n

The U.N. spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, characterized Israel\u2019s announcement as \u201csymbolic\u201d and unlikely to change U.N. operations. He said the organization would \u201ccontinue to work with the Israeli Mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think that member states should engage and continue to engage,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cengaging is always a better solution than disengaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Dujarric declined to comment on the contents of the report, which he said would be shared with members of the Security Council on Thursday and made public in about 10 days.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s inclusion in the report comes as the country has pushed back against accusations of abuse of Palestinian prisoners, including sexual violence.<\/p>\n

In March, the Israeli military dropped a politically fraught case<\/a> against five reserve soldiers charged with brutalizing a Palestinian detainee, citing difficulties with the evidence.<\/p>\n

The military\u2019s former chief legal officer had resigned over her role in leaking surveillance footage of the alleged abuse to local news media in an effort to ensure that prosecution could not be thwarted, further fueling the uproar surrounding the case. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the prosecution as \u201cblood libel\u201d that had \u201cdefamed Israel worldwide\u201d and said it had been \u201cconducted in a criminal manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Mr. Netanyahu threatened to sue The New York Times for defamation over an Opinion column<\/a> describing the use of sexual violence against Palestinians by some soldiers, settlers and prison guards. The Times said in a statement<\/a> that the threat \u201caims to undermine independent reporting\u201d and that \u201cany such legal claim would be without merit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to the U.N.\u2019s inclusion of Israel in its sexual violence report, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the \u201csole motivation\u201d for the decision was \u201can attempt to create a fake symmetry between Israel and the real sexual atrocities committed by Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Danon\u2019s office on Thursday shared a letter from Mr. Guterres informing Israel of its inclusion. The U.N. chief wrote that last year\u2019s report had \u201cput the Israeli armed and security forces on notice for potential listing in the next reporting cycle\u201d and that there had been an \u201cincreasing number of cases\u201d of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees verified since.<\/p>\n

Mr. Guterres acknowledged that Israel had engaged with his representative on the matter but said the country \u201chas not directly addressed\u201d implementation of measures to stop the problem, such as more oversight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations said Thursday that his country would cut ties with the U.N. secretary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[33494,45369,45368,5483,45617,1743,37,2253,1243],"class_list":["post-138175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-antonio","tag-danny-1971","tag-danon","tag-defense-and-military-forces","tag-guterres","tag-international-relations","tag-israel","tag-palestinians","tag-united-nations"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116666566170930333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}