Israel envoy wears yellow star at UN

UNITED NATIONS, New York US

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations displayed a yellow star reminiscent of Holocaust victims on his chest Monday, provocatively pledging to wear the badge until members of the Security Council condemn Hamas 'atrocities.'

Israel's UN envoy wore a yellow star similar to the one Nazis would force Jews to wear

The state has previously called for Secretary General Antonio Guterres to resign after he said last week that the October 7 Hamas attack that killed 1,400 'didn't happen in a vacuum.'  

'Some of you have learned nothing in the past 80 years. Some of you have forgotten why this body was established,' envoy Gilad Erdan said. 

Erdan denounced the Security Council for 'staying silent' over the unprecedented deadly attacks by Hamas Palestinian militants against Israel.

The deeply divided 15-member council has not adopted a single resolution on the three-week-long war between Israel and Hamas.

'So, I will remind you. From this day on, each time you look at me you will remember what staying silent in the face of evil means,' the ambassador said.

'Just like my grandparents, and the grandparents of millions of Jews, from now on my team and I will wear yellow stars,' he said, standing up to affix one on the breast of his suit inscribed with the words 'Never Again,' in reference to the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis.

But Erdan will wear it 'as a symbol of pride,' he said.

'We will wear this star until you wake up and condemn the atrocities of Hamas.'

His wearing of the badge, which has come to symbolise the oppression of Jews since its imposition in Nazi-occupied Europe, was swiftly criticised by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, which urged him to wear the Israeli flag instead. 

'This act disgraces the victims of the Holocaust as well as the state of Israel,' Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan said in a Hebrew-language post on X, formerly Twitter.

'The yellow star symbolises the helplessness of the Jewish people and their being at the mercy of others. We now have an independent state and a strong army. We are the masters of our own fate. 

'Today we will fasten to our lapel a blue and white flag, not a yellow star.'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the October 7 attacks the worst against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

For weeks the Security Council has been riven by divisions over the war and its impact, rejecting four draft resolutions about the conflict.

Jews wearing Star of David badges, Lodz Ghetto, Poland, World War II, 1940-1944

Some texts were blocked by the United States, a close Israel ally, because they did not mention Israel's right to defend itself.

Another presented by the Americans was stymied by Russia and China in particular because it did not clearly call for a ceasefire.

In light of the impasse, the UN General Assembly last Friday adopted by a large majority a nonbinding resolution requesting an 'immediate humanitarian truce,' but not mentioning Hamas.

Israel, through Erdan, blasted the text, saying it will 'go down as infamy.'

During Monday's Security Council meeting, several speakers, while denouncing the Hamas attacks, highlighted the price paid by inhabitants of Gaza, where health officials say more than 8,300 people have been killed in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, said the siege of Gaza amounts to collective punishment of its residents.

It comes as Israeli officials are going back on their promised refusal to grant entry visas to U.N. officials.

Martin Griffiths, the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, tweeted Monday that he was in Israel - less than a week after Israel´s U.N. ambassador said it had 'refused' to grant Griffiths a visa.

Israel has called for the UN's Secretary General to resign for saying the Hamas attacks cannot justify the 'collective punishment of the Palestinian people'.

In a major diplomatic row, Israel's UN ambassador said Antonio Guterres was 'not fit' to lead the body after he claimed the 1,400 murders did not happen 'in a vacuum'.

The UN chief made the incendiary comments in a high-level meeting of the 15-member Security Council ahead of an expected ground invasion of Gaza.

'The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,' said Guterres.

'But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.'

Erdan said the speech was 'shocking' and Mr Guterres was 'completely disconnected from the reality in our region'.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Guterres stood by his remarks.

On Monday, Israel´s ambassador in Geneva, Meirav Eilon Shahar, said, 'We haven´t said categorically that we´re not giving visas. We are ... We understand their need to be there.'

Eilon Shahar confirmed that Griffiths was in Israel, as well as other officials, including Han Kluge, the regional head of the World Health Organization.

But she continued to voice Israel´s frustration that U.N. institution chiefs didn´t speak out more forcefully against Hamas militants for 'butchering civilians and women in such a vicious way.'

'The United Nations has let down the people of Israel,' Eilon Shahar added. 'When I say the United Nations, I´m talking about the multilateral organizations have let down the people of Israel.'

He added: 'The UN Secretary General, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN. I call on him to resign immediately. There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people.'

Earlier, Israel's foreign minister said he would no longer meet with Mr Guterres and criticised his call for a ceasefire at the UN security council in New York on Tuesday.

Eli Cohen said: 'Mr. Secretary General, in what world do you live? Definitely this is not our world,' as he held up photos of children kidnapped by Hamas. 'How can you agree to a ceasefire when someone swore to kill and destroy your existence,' he added.

Cohen then thanked President Joe Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for standing with Israel.

In yesterday's meeting, Israel defied calls for a ceasefire, saying its war on Hamas was a 'war of the free world'.

Blinken and the Palestinian Authority's foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki both appealed for protection of civilians in Gaza.