Letter from Israel, responding to the USG for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator remarks made during the Security Council briefing on 13 May 2025 (S/2025/307)

16 May 2025

Letter dated 16 May 2025 from the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council

Please find attached a letter delivered to Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (see annex).

I should be grateful if you would have the present letter and its annex distributed as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Danny Danon

Ambassador

Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations

Annex to the letter dated 16 May 2025 from the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council

I was deeply shocked and disturbed by your recent remarks during the Security Council briefing on Tuesday, 13 May, in which you stated, “What more evidence do you need? Will you act now – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law? Or will you say instead, ‘we did all we could.’”

You had the audacity, in your capacity as a senior United Nations official, to stand before the Security Council and invoke the charge of genocide without evidence, mandate, or restraint. It was an utterly inappropriate and deeply irresponsible statement that shattered any notion of neutrality. As a senior representative of the United Nations, you are obligated to refrain from prejudging complex international matters. Yet, this is precisely what you did before the Council. You did not brief the Council; you delivered a political sermon.

Under whose authority do you issue what could be interpreted as a legal, or quasi-legal, accusation regarding the situation in Gaza? To weaponize the word “genocide” against Israel is not just distortion, it is the desecration and subversion of a term with unique force and weight.

The meaning of words are increasingly degraded in today’s political environment. The temptation to reach for the most outrageous term, to vilify and demonize, has become irresistible to many. But if there is one place where words – and truth – still matters, it ought to be the hallowed halls of the United Nations, where its most senior officials take the floor with the responsibility to deliver an impartial and neutral statement. You failed in that responsibility, and in doing so, eroded your personal integrity, the integrity of your post and the integrity of the institution itself.

Your remarks are made far worse by the fact that Israel has engaged with you and your office in good faith at the highest levels. The State of Israel has provided ample opportunity for you the chance to lead the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in a new, credible direction. But it has taken only five months for that opportunity to be squandered. You have not corrected the bias that plagued the office before you. Instead, you have become its loudest voice. It has been profoundly disappointing to watch as the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs under your leadership has continued to abandon all semblance of neutrality, impartiality, and non-interference.

To borrow your own words: I recommend that you and your agency ask yourselves whether you “did all you could” to prevent the atrocities of 7 October. What have you done to help accelerate the release of Israeli hostages still held underground? What aid have you provided them in horrific captivity? What action have you taken to hold Hamas accountable for its atrocities, as the sole authority responsible for Gaza’s situation?

Before casting judgment, you might begin by answering those questions.

(Signed) Danny Danon

Ambassador