Foreign Minister Israel Katz’s address to the UN Security Council on Monday was significant, not only because it conveyed a powerful message that the whole world needed to hear, but also because it is one that Israelis – and supporters worldwide – should share.
Katz urged the 15-member council to pressure Hamas to release all the hostages it is still holding in Gaza, declare Hamas a terrorist organization, and impose sanctions on its leaders. The foreign minister was accompanied at the Security Council by a large delegation, including families of the hostages and Aviva Segal, who returned from Hamas captivity and whose husband Keith is still held.
The session to discuss the UN report on the sexual violence committed by Hamas terrorists who raped, abducted, and slaughtered hundreds, including young people at the Nova music festival on October 7, Katz said: “Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to close your eyes and imagine how you would feel if these were your children.”
Hamas needs to be recognized as a terrorist organization
Noting that many countries had declared Hamas a terrorist organization – including the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Paraguay, New Zealand, the UK, and the European Union – he appealed to the Security Council: “Do not turn your head away from the facts: Hamas must be declared a terrorist organization and face the harshest sanctions.”
Insisting that the UN had been silent for too long regarding the actions of Hamas, Katz said that in the past five months, it had convened 41 times and “neither condemned nor denounced the brutal crimes of Hamas.” He demanded that the UNSC now exert as much pressure as possible on Hamas to “immediately and unconditionally release all the abductees, who today, as we speak, are being abused and assaulted, and are in great danger.”
Katz also asked Muslims to “condemn the crimes of sexual violence committed by these barbarians in the name of the Muslim faith.”
Defending UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, his Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramilla Patten, rejected an Israeli claim that he had sought to suppress her report confirming allegations of sexual violence by terrorists on and after October 7.
“I must be clear and categorical: There has been no attempt by the secretary-general to silence my report or suppress its findings,” she told the Security Council. “On the contrary, I received his full support, politically, logistically, and financially; and he also gave clear instructions for the public release of my report, and its immediate transmission to the Security Council.”
Katz also published the contents of a scathing letter he sent to Guterres: “Your response to the atrocities committed by Hamas is unacceptable. Your dismissal of the heinous acts as documented in the recent UN report – acts which are still being perpetrated – is not only inadequate but also offensive. The indifference displayed towards the report on Hamas’s sexual violence – crafted with bravery – is deplorable.
“Your reluctance to lead a decisive international stance against these atrocities signals a distressing bias. If the victims would not have been of Jewish or Israeli descent, your office would have responded in a much more vigorous way. UNRWA, under your oversight, has been implicated in the massacre, with thousands of its staff entwined with Hamas terrorist activities.
“Your tenure at the UN is set to be remembered for diminishing the organization’s stature to an all-time low, allowing it to become the epicenter of antisemitism and anti-Israeli incitement. To ensure justice and uphold human rights, you must act for the immediate and unconditional release of all individuals abducted by Hamas.”
For his part, Guterres urged Israel and Hamas to honor the spirit of Ramadan by “silencing the guns” in Gaza. “I am appalled and outraged that conflict is continuing in Gaza during this holy month,” he told reporters. “The eyes of history are watching. We cannot look away. We must act to avoid more preventable deaths.”
Why does Guterres, a veteran Portuguese diplomat who has served since 2017, not understand that no guns can be silenced until the hostages are returned, as ordered by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in January?
As Katz said, every member of the council – and Guterres – must urgently do all in their power “to end this hell on earth” and return the hostages home to Israel.
“Today every one of you has the opportunity to save 134 innocent lives,” Katz declared. “By doing so, you will show the world that the Security Council can be a shining beacon of justice and hope for all humanity. It is in your hands.”