UN Adds Israel to Infamous ‘List of Shame’ Alongside Hamas, Prompting Outrage

Corey Walker

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at the UN headquarters in New York City, US, before a meeting about the conflict in Gaza, Nov. 6, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

The United Nations on Friday announced that it has placed Israel, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on its so-called “list of shame,” prompting outrage from Israeli officials who described the move as the latest effort by the international organization to damage the reputation of the Jewish state.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told senior officials on Friday that he has blacklisted Israel alongside other “countries that kill children” in armed conflict. The decision places the Jewish state alongside notorious human rights abusers such as Russia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. The list also includes Islamist terrorist groups such as Islamic State, al Qaeda, and Boko Haram.

Israel is considered to be the only democracy on the list, which is included in a report on children and armed conflict that Guterres is due to submit to the UN Security Council on June 14. Guterres’s office releases an annual report that documents alleged rights violations against children in armed conflict.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan received a call from Guterres’s office on Friday, informing him of the Jewish state’s inclusion on the upcoming edition of the infamous list, which the UN Security Council is set to discuss along with the broader report’s findings on June 26. 

Erdan excoriated the decision by the UN as “outrageous and wrong,” adding that Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that rules Gaza, “has been using children for terrorism and uses schools and hospitals as military compounds.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement condemning the UN announcement and defending the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“Today the UN added itself to the black list of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers,” the statement said. “The IDF is the most moral army in the world; no delusional UN decision will change that.”

Israeli officials have long accused the international body of having a bias against the Jewish state. Last year, the UN General Assembly condemned Israel twice as often as it did all other countries.

The latest UN announcement has potential consequences for Israel. The UN will put in place a “monitoring and reporting mechanism” (MRM) that will collaborate with Israeli officials to help secure children’s safety in war zones. The MRM will be tasked with producing reports detailing Israel’s progress in protecting Palestinian children to the UN Security Council. 

A leaked draft of the report accuses Israel of killing around 8,000 Palestinian children over the course of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, citing data from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Independent analyses have concluded that casualty figures from Gaza authorities systematically overcount the number of casualties while undercounting the number of men and Hamas terrorists who were killed.

The draft also accuses the Jewish state of indiscriminately dropping bombs in heavily populated areas in Gaza and obstructing humanitarian aid from reaching the war-torn enclave, both of which have disproportionately negative effects on children.

Pro-Israel supporters have lambasted the UN’s decision, noting that Hamas terrorists embed themselves within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeer civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks. Israeli officials maintain they go to extensive lengths to avoid civilian casualties while targeting Hamas, arguing collateral damage is unfortunate but inevitable given Hamas’ strategy of using civilian sites.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both internationally designated terrorist organizations, have for years openly run and promoted summer camps in Gaza where children undergo military training. Israel’s military has accused Hamas and Islamic Jihad of using child soldiers in their war against Israel, claiming it found documents, video footage and photographs of Palestinian children being exploited as fighters.

The UN announcement came on the same day that a new report by the Associated Press revealed that women and children are a shrinking portion of casualties in Gaza, indicating shifting military tactics by Israel. The report also cast doubt on claims that Israel has not attempted to protect children as it continues its military campaign against Hamas, which launched the war with its Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.

According to the AP, children accounted for 60 percent of civilian deaths during the beginning of the war in October, but that number shrank to 40 percent in April. 

The decreasing share of children among casualties, according to the AP, “went unnoticed for months by the UN and much of the media, and the Hamas-linked Health Ministry has made no effort to set the record straight.”

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