Israel UN ambassador blasts UN official as ‘terror collaborator’ for calling Hamas a political organization

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Israel ambassador responds to to UNRWA employees’ participation in the October 7 massacre

Israel’s ambassador condemned UNRWA employees who allegedly took part in the Hamas massacre during a recent speech.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan took to social media to slam the latest outrage from a senior United Nations official who said Hamas was a political group during a recent television interview.

Erdan slammed U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA) Martin Griffiths, calling his organization “a terror-excusing, Hamas-promoting, victim-blaming organization.”

Erdan wrote on X that “The UN’s pro-Hamas stance is finally exposed on live TV.Is the brutal murder of hundreds of civilians not terror? Is the systematic rape of women not terror? Is attempting Jewish genocide not terror?” 

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Erdan’s post concluded, “You are no ‘humanitarian.’ Sadly, you are a terror collaborator.”

Griffiths told Sky News in an interview earlier this week that the jihadi movement Hamas is “not a terrorist group for us.” He added, “of course, as you know. It’s a political movement.”

Griffiths’ comments came in response to a query about whether Israel’s opposition to Hamas being part of a future Palestinian government is achievable. 

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Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths attends a security council meeting on maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine and food security at the U.N. Headquarters in New York City on July 21, 2023. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The U.N. official said “it is very, very difficult to dislodge these groups without a negotiated solution which includes their aspirations.”

After Griffiths’ seemingly pro-Hamas statement triggered outrage in Jerusalem and social media, Griffiths scrambled on X to modify his statement. He wrote on X “Just to clarify: Hamas is not on the list of groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United Nations Security Council.” 

Griffiths added that, “This doesn’t make their acts of terror on 7 October any less horrific and reprehensible, as I’ve been saying all along.”

When asked if Griffiths has the full confidence of United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, a spokesman for the U.N. referred Fox News Digital to statements from Guterres’ spokesman, Stephane Dujarric. 

“From the Secretary-General’s standpoint, I think he and many other senior U.N. officials, including Martin Griffiths, have unequivocally condemned the abhorrent terrorist attack that Hamas conducted on October 7th and that there could be no justification for them. That position is unchanged. As we’ve said many times here, and the Secretary-General himself not too long ago, for the United Nations, the designation of an entity as a terrorist group or terrorist organization, can only be made by the Security Council,” Dujarric told reporters at the U.N.

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Palestinian Hamas terrorists are seen during a military show in the Bani Suheila district on July 20, 2017 in Gaza City, Gaza. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

When pressed by Fox News Digital if the secretary-general would recommend to U.N. member states that Hamas should be designated a terrorist organization, the U.N.’s spokesperson did not immediately answer.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted on X in English: “The @UNReliefChief denies that the Nazi organization Hamas is a terrorist organization and calls it a ‘political movement.’ Shame on him.”

Israeli government officials and its military spokespeople have referred to Hamas as comparable to the Islamic State and the Hitler movement since Hamas invaded Israel. Hamas murdered over 30 Americans on Oc. 7 in those attacks.

In Hebrew, Katz wrote “The United Nations reaches new lows every day,” he wrote, pointing to statements from Griffiths, as well as Guterres. We will eliminate Hamas with or without them,” he pledged. “Jewish blood is not cheap.”

John Kirby, national security council coordinator, during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On Thursday, in response to a question about Griffith’s comments, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters, “Hamas is a terrorist organization. We’ve said so. It is. It just is. And you don’t have to look any further than what they did on the 7th of October to see it in stark terms. And, my goodness, take a look at their manifesto, even the one that’s so-called watered down in 2017. There’s no doubt they just want to wipe Israel off the face of the map. This is a terrorist organization, pure and simple. Period.”

Anne Bayefsky, director of the New York-based Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Fox News Digital, “This is one more cover-up by U.N. Secretary-General Guterres. Here are the actual facts: the United Nations has no definition of terrorism. It has never been able to define terrorism, and therefore been unable to adopt a Comprehensive Convention Against Terrorism over decades of negotiations, because the Organization of Islamic Cooperation – all 56 Islamic states – think murdering Israelis doesn’t count. As a result, the Security Council has never condemned Hamas, not before October 7th or after.”

Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip, at a celebration of the 35th anniversary of Hamas’ founding. Dec 14, 2022. (Photo: Majdi Fathi/TPS)

She added, “At the same time, absolutely nothing prevents the head of the organization – theoretically devoted to human dignity, peace and the protection of human rights – from calling out Hamas as the genocidal antisemitic terrorist organization that it is. Failure to do so isn’t moral or political leadership. It is playing defense for Hamas.”

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Bayefsky concluded, “If you can’t define or name the enemy, you certainly can’t defeat it. And that is exactly where we are: a United Nations trying to deny Israel a right of self-defense and circling the wagons not around civilians, but around their rapists and murderers.”

Even before the latest scandal, the U.N. organization that deals with Palestinians, UNRWA, and its employees had been embroiled in accusations that some of its workers participated in the Hamas massacre of 1,200 people on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.

Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal.