Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday that Antonio Guterres was barred from Israel, after the UN Secretary-General failed to directly condemn Tehran for the 181 ballistic missiles it launched at the country, which forced millions of Israelis to seek shelter Tuesday night.
Declaring Guterres persona non grata, Katz accused the UN chief of kowtowing to “Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran — the mothership of global terror,” of failing to denounce the October 7 attacks and of neglecting to brand Hamas a terrorist organization.
The move is sure to deepen the already wide rift between Israel and the UN. Germany, which summoned Iran’s envoy to condemn the attack, said Katz’s declaration was unhelpful.
Writing on X amid the barrage, Guterres condemned “the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation.”
“This must stop,” he said. “We absolutely need a ceasefire.”
Guterres’s omission of Iran drew the scorn of many Israeli leaders. Katz, who has repeatedly sparred with Guterres since October 7, said the UN chief’s failure to “unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack” made him persona non grata in Israel.
Army Radio quoted officials in the Population and Immigration Authority as saying they were unaware of Katz’s decision, and were skeptical it was within his jurisdiction.
Responding to a query from The Times of Israel, the Foreign Ministry sent an Population and Immigration Authority memo from June saying the ministry, not the Authority, was empowered to declare the holder of a diplomatic passport — such as Guterres — persona non grata.
In Germany, a staunch ally of Israel, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer acknowledged Israel’s tensions with the UN, but said the step “isn’t particularly helpful, because in the end more talks are needed and not fewer talks.”
He added that “we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of channels of dialogue that could possibly contribute to bringing about a solution.”
Fischer also rejected Iran’s claim that its attack was justified as a response to Israel’s escalation in Lebanon over the past week, including the killing on Friday of Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah.
“We can only speak of self-defense when one is repelling an ongoing or imminent threat, otherwise it is revenge,” he said, adding that “revenge is not a category in international law.”
Israel has stepped up its attacks on Hezbollah after making the return of residents to the north an official war aim. Tens of thousands of residents were evacuated from the north after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, amid concerns Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack and in the face of relentless Hezbollah rocket fire.
Since Israel escalated its airstrikes on the Hezbollah terror group on Monday, more than 630 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. On Tuesday, Israel said it had launched ground operations in Lebanon. Israel has said that many Hezbollah operatives are among the dead.
Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis since October 8. The group says it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught. The shock assault saw thousands of Hamas-led terrorists storm southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Amid the conflict, Guterres has found himself on a collision course with Israeli officials. Israel accused the UN chief of antisemitism when, less than three weeks after October 7, he said the onslaught “didn’t happen in a vacuum,” citing the 56 “years of suffocating occupation” to which Israel has subjected Palestinians.
In a June press conference, Guterres said he had condemned the Hamas onslaught 102 times. He has also met with families of hostages held in Gaza, including on September 20, at the start of the UN’s annual general assembly.