UN Chief Guterres Accuses Israel of Sexual Violence in Reversal
Israel has severed all contact with UN Secretary-General António Guterres after Israeli security forces were listed alongside terrorist organizations in a UN sexual violence report.
According to Nius, the decision marks a dramatic escalation in the deteriorating relationship between Israel and the UN chief, who has repeatedly drawn criticism for his handling of Middle Eastern conflicts and apparent inability to condemn Hamas terrorism without equivocation.
The breaking point came when the UN included Israeli institutions in an appendix to its CRSV report, which purports to document sexual violence in conflict zones. The report accuses the Israeli Defense Forces, police, and prison services of sexual misconduct, specifically naming the Yamam unit, the Keter prison service unit, and Force 100.
Critically, the allegations rest not on hard evidence but on claims made by Palestinian prisoners, with no independent investigation having been conducted to verify the accusations.
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, condemned the decision as a moral disgrace, accusing the organization of placing Israel on the same level as Hamas, ISIS, and the most brutal terror groups in the world. Israeli Ambassador to Berlin expressed his outrage directly at Guterres, stating that Palestinian terrorists livestreamed their murders, rapes, and kidnappings of Jews with evidence everywhere, yet the UN found room for doubt and context.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced it would cease all cooperation with Guterres and his office. The country had already declared the Portuguese diplomat persona non grata in October 2024, barring him from entering Israeli territory.
António Guterres, who served as Portugal’s Prime Minister from 1995 to 2002 before becoming UN Secretary-General in 2017, has maintained a troubling pattern of responses to Israeli security concerns. The 77-year-old has been particularly problematic since the October 7 massacre that triggered the Gaza war.
After Iran’s Mullah regime launched a massive rocket attack on Israel, Guterres issued a statement condemning the escalation of the Middle East conflict without naming either Iran or Israel specifically. This apparent neutrality masked what Israeli officials saw as moral cowardice and a refusal to identify the aggressor.
But the pattern extends far beyond that incident. Guterres claimed the October 7 massacres did not happen in a vacuum, arguing that Palestinians had endured 56 years of crushing occupation. This framing ignores the Oslo process, Palestinian autonomy, and the complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, as Nius reports.
By suggesting there were reasons or explanations for Hamas atrocities, the socialist Portuguese politician effectively turned victims into perpetrators.
Guterres has condemned Israeli military operations in Lebanon without mentioning the preceding Hezbollah rocket attacks. He remained silent when Houthi militants in Yemen bombarded Israel but characterized the Israeli response as a dangerous escalation.
Perhaps most grotesquely, shortly after the Iranian regime massacred at least 30,000 dissidents, Guterres congratulated the Islamic Republic on the anniversary of its 1979 revolution, essentially wishing the criminal Mullah regime a happy birthday.
The hostility toward the Jewish state runs deep throughout UN institutions. The organization’s bias has been evident in statements from Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, and the Human Rights Council’s selective focus on Israel while ignoring atrocities committed by authoritarian regimes worldwide.
The UNRWA relief agency has faced particular scrutiny after evidence emerged that numerous employees participated in the October 7 attacks or maintained active Hamas membership. Nearly all UNRWA staff are Palestinians who either sympathize with Hamas or hold formal membership in the terrorist organization.
Israel’s decision to cut all ties with Guterres until his departure in December represents an unprecedented breakdown in relations between a UN member state and the Secretary-General. Jerusalem has made clear it has had enough of a UN chief who demands context for Jewish victims while rushing to condemn Israeli defensive actions.
The rift highlights the fundamental crisis of credibility facing the United Nations when it comes to Middle Eastern affairs, where moral clarity has been sacrificed on the altar of false equivalence between democratic nations defending their citizens and terrorist organizations dedicated to their destruction.
With information from Nius
