UN 'mafia-like' shakedown against independent aid delivery in Gaza, Israeli envoy says

Ottawa Citizen

2 days ago

As the Jewish state facilitates aid entry via the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation into the Strip, the United Nations is running a 'mafia-like' shakedown and is spreading 'panic' and making 'declarations detached from reality,' Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.
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'This is the gravest violation of the U.N.'s own principles,' he said. 'It is the extortion of any well-meaning NGO that refuses to kiss the ring. A shakedown with U.N.-branding.'
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Hamas knows that if it loses control over aid in Gaza, it will also lose its hold over Gazans, according to the Israeli envoy.
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Danon told the Security Council that the global body removed non-governmental organizations, which are part of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, from its central system for tracking aid delivery in the Strip.
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'The United Nations is using threats, intimidation and retaliation against NGOs that choose to participate in the new humanitarian mechanism,' Danon said. 'A number of major international NGOs made the decision to take part in the new aid initiative. They ignored the U.N.'s calls for a boycott. They chose to act because they truly care.'
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The United Nations removed those organizations 'in retaliation and without any discussion or due process,' according to the Israeli mission to the United Nations. 'They were frozen out,' it said.
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Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, told JNS that 'there are no differences between the current list and the one from before the launch of the GHF.' (JNS sought comment from the Israeli mission to the United Nations.)
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Danon also slammed the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday and charged that its activities led up to the gunman killing two Israeli embassy staffers at point-blank range outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington the week before.
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'The animal who pulled the trigger was just the final link in a chain of incitement that stretches across social media, across university campuses, across rallies in Times Square and, yes, across the floor of this very council,' Danon said at the monthly council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian file.