UN Receives a Severe Rebuke

In parallel with many other organisations, the United Nations General Assembly held a Holocaust memorial event on Monday 27th January.

Nearly 16 months on from the 7th October terror attacks by Hamas on Israel, the UN’s General Secretary, António Guterres, used the occasion to say it will continue doing its utmost to ensure it leads to the release of all hostages. He claimed that the organisation has asked for the unconditional and immediate release of all hostages since the beginning.

But the General Secretary had also invited Isaac Herzog, the President of Israel, to address the Assembly, and in a powerful speech he rebuked it severely.

After describing some of the distress of waiting for the hostages to be released, President Herzog called on all representatives in the General Assembly who consider themselves part of the civilized world to throw their weight behind ensuring Israel’s hostages return to their homes – he clearly did not think they had done that over the previous 15 months.

After reading a prayer for the hostages, he warned the UN General Assembly about moral bankruptcy, saying:

“Today we find ourselves yet again at a dangerous crossroads in the history of this institution.
Rather than fulfilling its purpose and fighting courageously against a global epidemic of jihadist murderous and abhorrent terror,
time and again this assembly has exhibited moral bankruptcy.”

Then he observed that institutions such as the International Criminal Court have chosen outrageous hypocrisy and the protection of the perpetrators of atrocities – the complete opposite of what they should be doing.

President Herzog went on to ask:

“How is it possible that the same institutions established in the wake of the greatest genocide in history, the Holocaust,
are manipulating the definition of genocide for the sole purpose of attacking Israel and the Jewish people,
doing so by embracing the despicable phenomena of Holocaust inversion?”

And referring to a report about the rise in antisemitism the United Nations had just published, he described it as an urgent wakeup call to all humanity, because it showed that antisemitism, savagery, cruelty and racism are thriving.

But even more outrageous than that, he said,

“is a UN member state, Iran, explicitly scheming and acting to destroy
a fellow UN member state, the State of Israel.
Iran’s fanatical leadership turned its country into a hub of antisemitism, hatred and terror.”

Here is President Herzog’s full speech: