Israel blasts UN official who called Hamas a ‘political movement’
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz blasted a UN official who insisted that Hamas is a “political movement” and not a terror organisation.
Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz at the Transportation Ministry in Jerusalem on June 23, 2019. Photo by Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90.
Katz was responding to Martin Griffiths, a British diplomat who serves as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the United Nations. Asked by Sky News about Israeli objections to a Hamas role in administering post-war Gaza, Griffiths said, “Hamas is not a terrorist group. For us, of course, as you know, it’s a political movement.”
Katz tweeted on Thursday, “The United Nations @UN breaks a new record low every day. The Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations @UNReliefChief rejects the fact that the Nazi terrorist organisation Hamas is a terrorist organisation, calling it a “political movement” and the Secretary-General of the United Nations @antonioguterres continues feign ignorance. We will eliminate Hamas with or without them. Jewish blood is not cheap.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, called Griffiths a “terror collaborator” on social media.
“Is the brutal murder of hundreds of civilians not terror? Is the systematic rape of women not terror? Is attempting Jewish genocide not terror?” Erdan tweeted.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 240 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the remaining 134 hostages, Israel recently declared 31 of them dead.
