In General Assembly speech, UN head takes shots at Israel
António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, opened the U.N. General Assembly’s high-level debate week by repeatedly criticizing the Jewish state.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s 79th session on Sept. 24, 2024. Photo: Loey Felipe/U.N. Photo
Complaining of a “world of impunity,” Guterres assessed that “a growing number of governments and others feel entitled to a ‘get out of jail free’ card.”
“They can trample international law. They can violate the United Nations charter,” Guterres said on Tuesday. “They can turn a blind eye to international human rights conventions or the decisions of international courts.”
“We see this age of impunity everywhere,” including in the Middle East, Guterres added.
The secretary-general, who is largely persona non grata to Israeli diplomats due to what pro-Israel critics largely view as his justification of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel and his repeated critiques of Israeli military operations in response to attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah and others. He has said that Hamas’s attack didn’t occur “in a vacuum.”
Guterres said that Gaza “is a nonstop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it,” adding, “look no further than Lebanon. We must do everything in our power to prevent Lebanon from becoming another Gaza.”
“Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. The speed and scale of the killing and destruction in Gaza are unlike anything in my years as secretary-general,” he added. “More than 200 of our own staff have been killed, many with their families.”
The U.N. head did not mention that internationally-designated terror groups control both Lebanon and Gaza, and that those groups attacked Israel, launching the nearly year-long conflict in the region.
“Nothing can justify the abhorrent acts of terror committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, or the taking of hostages—both of which I have repeatedly condemned,” Guterres said.
Guterres called on the international community to “mobilize for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and the beginning of an irreversible process towards a two-state solution.”
“For those who go on undermining that goal with more settlements, more land grabs, more incitement—I ask: What is the alternative?” he said on Tuesday.
The U.N. head also questioned how the world could “accept a one-state future that includes such a large number of Palestinians without any freedom, rights or dignity?”
In his speech, Guterres did not mention Israeli security concerns.
