The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to include Israel, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in its blacklist of countries and non-state actors that commit grave violations against children in situations of armed conflict, due to the Gaza war.
“Today the UN added itself to the black list of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers. The IDF is the most moral army in the world; no delusional UN decision will change that,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
He spoke up immediately after Guterres’ office informed Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan that his Israel’s security forces were on the list.
The document which covers events in the year 2023, will only be made public on June 18 and publicly discussed by the Security Council on June 26.
The blacklist, usually reserved for global bad actors, is published as an annex to the annual report.
It’s the first time Israel’s security forces have been listed in the annex, and the Jewish state is the first democracy to be part of that annex.
Last year’s report listed entities such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and ISIS in Iraq as well as the Russian army for its actions in Ukraine. Israel is the first democracy to be part of that annex.
The report covers six violations – killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction, recruitment and use of children, denial of aid access, and attacks on schools and hospitals. It was not immediately clear what violations Israel, Hamas, or Palestinian Islamic Jihad had been listed for.
Virginia Gamba, Guterres’ special representative for children and armed conflict, compiled the list, which is split into two: parties that have put in place measures to protect children and parties that have not.
Erdan said he was told Israel had been included on the list of parties that had not put in place adequate measures to protect children.
Israel is concerned that the placement of its security forces on the list could impact bilateral defense agreements with other UN member states as well as arms agreements.
France this year banned Israeli security companies from participating in the annual Eurosatory arms and defense industry exhibition to be held in Villepinte later this month.
Guterres’ decision to place Israel on the blacklist comes as the International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan has sought arrest warrants against top Israeli and Hamas leaders.
The International Court of Justice is simultaneously adjudicating a claim by South Africa that Israel is in violation of the 1948 genocide convention.
Now that Israel is on the list a monitoring group will be established to evaluate its activity moving forward and to set criteria for Israel to be removed from the list.
Erdan responds
Erdan made a video of himself receiving the news, which he then posted on X.
I received the official notification about the Secretary-General's decision to put the IDF on the "blacklist" of countries and organizations that harm children. This is simply outrageous and wrong because Hamas has been using children for terrorism and uses schools and hospitals… pic.twitter.com/o1civfJFAk
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) June 7, 2024
“I am utterly shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision by the secretary-general,” he told Guterres’ office during the call.
“This immoral decision will only aid the terrorists and reward Hamas,” he said. “The only one who is blacklisted today is the secretary-general, whose decisions since the war started and even before, are rewarding terrorists and incentivizing them to use children for terror acts,” Erdan said.
“Now Hamas will continue even more to use schools and hospitals,” Erdan said, adding that the move “gives Hamas hope to survive and will only extend the war and extend the suffering.”
Erdan added, “Shame on him.”
Guterres’ spokesperson Stephane Dujarric described the video and its partial release as “shocking and unacceptable and frankly something I’ve never seen in my 24 years serving this organization.”
Israel was notified of its presence on the list as the US is engaged in a massive diplomatic blitz to show that Hamas has lost international support, in hopes of pressuring it to agree to a deal that opens a pathway to the release of the hostages and an end to the Gaza war.
Israeli politicians widely condemned the UN’s actions, with Foreign Minster Israel Katz stating that it would have “consequences for Israel’s relationship with the UN.”
“Guterres, who stood for a minute of silence in memory of Iran’s president who executed tens of thousands of innocents, will be remembered in history as an antisemitic secretary-general who chose to ignore Hamas’s sexual crimes and Israel’s right to self-defense,” Katz stated.
Palestinian Authority welcomes UN move
A spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the UN decision was “a step in the right direction towards holding Israel accountable for its crimes” and that Israel should have been added long ago.
Israel was almost placed on the list as a result of the 2014 Gaza war when 540 children were among more than 2,100 Palestinians killed.
Israel lobbied then-UN chief Ban Ki-Moon hard to stay off the list, though it denied pressuring him. Ultimately, Ban did not add Israel or Hamas to the list of offenders, though the report did strongly criticize Israel over the 50-day conflict.
Hamas has asserted that it has verified the deaths of 7,797 children out of 24,686 fatalities it has verified, It has overall reported over 36,000 Palestinians killed during the war. Israel has said that some 14,000 of those are combatants.
According to Israel’s National Council for the Child, 38 children were killed in the October 7 Hamas-led attack that sparked the war and 42 of some 251 people taken hostage in Gaza were children. All but two children have been released.
More Israeli politicians respond
Energy Minister Eli Cohen took to X, formerly Twitter, to protest the UN's anticipated blacklisting of Israel.
"The UN is a failing, biased, and anti-Semitic organization, which, through its absurd decisions, continues to reward the terrorism of Hamas/ISIS, an organization that slaughtered children, raped women, and kidnapped the elderly," Cohen wrote.
The UN is a failing, biased, and anti-Semitic organization, which, through its absurd decisions, continues to reward the terrorism of Hamas/ISIS, an organization that slaughtered children, raped women, and kidnapped the elderly.No country has acted as well as Israel to protect…
— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) June 7, 2024
"No country has acted as well as Israel to protect the civilian population," the energy minister continued. "The IDF is the most moral army in the world, and we will not yield to international dictates. We will continue to fight with all our might until Hamas is defeated and the hostages are returned."