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Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday declared UN Secretary-General António Guterres a persona non grata in Israel, banning his entry into the country.
Katz condemned Guterres in an X post for his failure to unequivocally denounce Tuesday's Iranian missile attack on Israel, which targeted Israeli civilians, instead condemning "the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation" without mentioning Tehran.
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UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Foreign Minister Israel Katz
(Photo: AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP, Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
"Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil," he wrote.
He also criticized Guterres for not condemning the October 7 Hamas attack, which saw widespread violence and atrocities, and for failing to lead efforts to declare Hamas a terrorist organization.
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"A Secretary-General who gives backing to terrorists, rapists, and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran—the mothership of global terror—will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN," he further wrote.
An Israeli official further said that Guterres "crossed all the lines," citing his refusal to designate Hamas as a terror group and his defense of the UN’s Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, despite its alleged ties to Hamas in Gaza.
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