No country wants to be there. Every year, the UN publishes the “list of shame” which denounces the actions of certain countries in terms of human rights. If this initiative reviews violations of children’s rights in around twenty conflict zones, it lists in the appendix those responsible for these violations, which include children killed and mutilated, recruitment, kidnappings or sexual violence. Objective: to get governments to improve their policies. Among the regulars in this black catalog, we find Afghanistan, South Sudan, Somalia… And now Israel, the “first democratic country” to appear there.
After eight months of war in Gaza, the small Hebrew country is now being singled out for the actions of its army. Because the toll is heavy: in total, 15,500 children were killed in this conflict, according to the Minister of Health of the Palestinian enclave – figures that are difficult to verify from an independent source. While the list is due to be published on June 18, the Israeli ambassador, Gilad Erdan, took everyone by surprise by publishing a video where he is notified, Friday, June 7, by Antonio Guterres’ chief of staff, of the addition of the Israeli army.
“I am deeply shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision of the Secretary General,” we see Gilad Erdan saying on the phone in a video broadcast on his X account (formerly Twitter). “It is an immoral decision that aids terrorism and rewards Hamas […] Shame on him!” adds the ambassador, who has regularly attacked Antonio Guterres and the UN in general in recent months. Israel Katz, Minister of Foreign Affairs, declared that the decision to add the army Israeli addition to this list “will have consequences for Israel’s relations with the UN”.
“The most moral army in the world”
“Today, the UN has added itself to the blacklist of History by joining those who support the murderers of Hamas,” added Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli armed forces are “the most moral army in the world and no crazy UN decision will change that.”
The war saw relations between Israel and the UN reach historic lows, with Israeli diplomats using their platforms at the UN to denounce the world body. “Israel’s quarrel with the UN goes beyond the scope of the secretary general”, recalls the American channel CNN. Israeli officials also criticized the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the World Health Organization, UN Women and the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese.
“An important step in the right direction”
Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson confirmed the telephone conversation between the chief of staff and the Israeli ambassador. It was a “courtesy call”, reserved for countries “newly listed” in the report, said Stéphane Dujarric, deeming the recording and broadcast of the video “shocking and unacceptable”.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, for his part welcomed the addition of Israel to this list. This “will not bring back the tens of thousands of our children killed by Israel over several decades”, but “it is an important step in the right direction to end the double standards and the culture of impunity that has benefited Israel for too long,” he commented on to be surprised by such a development after the murder and mutilation of so many Palestinian children.”
However, a diplomatic source told AFP that Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another armed Palestinian movement, would indeed be added to the list. Last year, Russian armed forces and “affiliated” armed groups operating in Ukraine appeared on the “list of shame.” But not Israel, to the great dismay of human rights organizations who have been calling for its inclusion for years. Already in 2015, UN officials were accused of having given in to Israeli pressure on the list of children’s rights, the British daily noted at the time. The Guardian.
Several warnings
The UN warned in the 2022 report that Israel would be placed on the list if no improvement was seen. But last year’s report noted “a significant decline in the number of children killed by Israeli forces, including in airstrikes”, between 2021 and 2022. The war between Israel and Hamas, launched on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by Hamas against Israel – which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, the majority civilians killed that day, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data – changed the situation.
Israel’s inclusion this year is “a completely justified decision by the secretary general, even if it should have been taken a long time ago,” Louis Charbonneau of Human Rights Watch told AFP. “It’s something we’re calling for for a long time, with the registration of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. In response to the October 7 attack, the Israeli army launched a deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas took power in 2007.