Israel kicks out UN coordinator for Gaza
Israel repeatedly complains that UN employees are biased in favor of the Gaza Strip. There is no objective response to the accusations. Now the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid in the Gaza Strip will not receive another visa.
According to the United Nations, Israel does not want to extend the visa for the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in the Palestinian Territories, Lynn Hastings. The UN has been informed by the Israeli authorities that Hastings' visa will not be extended beyond its expiration date, said Guterres' spokesman Stéphane Dujarric in New York. Israel accuses Hastings of being biased in the current conflict between Israel and the Islamist Hamas.
In December 2020, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed the Canadian as Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process and Local Humanitarian Coordinator for the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Her visa for Israel reportedly expires this month.
Guterres continues to have "full confidence" in Hastings, said the UN spokesperson. He would not say whether Hastings, who currently works from Jerusalem, would be replaced or would work from a different location in the future. Some public attacks against Hastings in the online service X were "completely unacceptable", said the UN spokesperson, without going into the Israeli accusations. The Israeli Foreign Ministry had criticized Hastings on X at the end of October, stating that she was neither "impartial" nor "objective".
Calls for Guterres to resign
Other UN representatives have also been criticized by Israeli representatives since the beginning of the war between Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas. Israel's UN ambassador Gilad Erdan, for example, has repeatedly called for Guterres to resign. At the end of October, he announced that Israel would no longer issue visas to UN envoys.
He accused other UN representatives of "spreading lies", for example about the number of people allegedly killed and injured. "Who is providing the UN with these so-called facts? Does this information come from unbiased and impartial third parties?" Erdan asked the UN Security Council. "The answer is no. All the information about the situation on the ground that this council receives comes from Hamas and not from international UN staff in Gaza."
Following Israel's decision to not renew Lynn Hastings' visa, there has been hostility towards Israel at the United Nations. Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, maintains his confidence in Hastings, despite Israel's accusations of her bias during the Israel war in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, has been critical of several UN representatives, including Guterres, and has called for his resignation due to perceived bias and spread of misinformation during the conflict.
Source: www.ntv.de
