UN chief banned from entering Israel

Hi everyone, Welcome to Difference Frames the World, a channel where you can see the world from a different angle. Please subscribe to our channel and turn on the notification so you will not miss our videos uploaded every week. Today, we discuss the situation in the Middle East when more and more countries in the area are involved in the conflict with Israel. On October 2, local time, the Israeli Army Radio delivered a message on its social media account, saying that Israeli Foreign Minister Katz has decided to include UN Secretary-General Guterres on the list of undesirable persons, persona non grata, and prohibit him from entering Israel. Katz also posted on social media that day that Guterres is biased against Israel,  accusing him of failing to “unequivocally” condemn Iran’s missile attack on Israel. Israel has persistently complained over the UN’s approach throughout its yearlong war in Gaza. It is worth mentioning that On September 26, Katz rejected the 21-day ceasefire proposal from the US and France, and the Israeli Prime Minister instructed his army to continue the operation in Lebanon. A Reuters report that day said that Israel had rejected global calls on September 26 for a ceasefire with the Hezbollah movement, defying the United States and continuing the strikes that had killed hundreds in Beirut and deepened fears of an all-out regional war. On October 5, 2024, when most people in the world were celebrating the long-waiting weekend, fresh strikes from Israel killed two people in Lebanon, wounding 15, and the death toll in Lebanon had passed 2000 the same day when Israel resumed bombing. The strikes may have displaced millions, but most airlines, if not all, have stopped flights to and from Beirut, making evacuation difficult. Many countries are planning to repatriate their nations from Lebanon, but only China took back over 200 Chinese from the deadly stricken city. It is a little ironic that the West keeps criticizing China for its so-called human rights issue, and tries to convince the world that the Chinese people are leading a miserable life, unlike Westerners happily living in the US, UK, France, and Germany, to name a few. When wars and national disasters come, the Chinese government always stands behind its nationals. When an all-out regional war is looming, most, if not all, Western airlines choose to avoid the affected area, especially Beirut. According to the real-time flight tracker map of global aircraft at six on October 5, 2024, most routes passing through the Middle East currently choose to avoid conflict areas, and there was only one plane at the Beirut International Airport. Under such a critical moment, a Chartered flight, Air China CCA061, headed directly from Beijing to Beirut International Airport in Lebanon at around 9 on October 1, 2024. About 20 hours later, on October 2, 2024, Beijing time, 151 people, including 146 Chinese citizens in Lebanon and their foreign family members, arrived safely at Beijing Capital International Airport. Based on a Reuters report on October 5, 2024, China is the only country that repatriated its nationals, and those so-called democratic nations in the West, including the US, the UK and Australia, three anti-China AUKUS members, are still discussing and planning, deciding whether and when to take their nationals back. It is noteworthy that the Israeli Prime Minister tells the world that Danger is threatening his country and people, and orders strikes to eradicate the danger, millions of civilians have been put under or in danger that can kill them at any time. Still, the retiring US President Joe Biden, who has lived long enough far away from the war, reaffirmed his support for Israel amid Iran's missile attack, and the Pentagon confirmed that the US had helped Israel shoot down missiles from Iran. Biden told the reporter on October 1, 2024, that he hopes certain countries in the Middle East “Make no mistake, the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel.” The "three-fully" remarks of the US president illustrated the importance of Israel to the United States, telling his audience that the US is willing to counter the whole world for the country which just declared the UN leader unwelcome. Regarding Israel's decision to ban the UN Secretary-General from entering the country, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US believes it is  "not productive at all," considering the United Nations' role in the Middle East. Rather than criticizing the Israeli Foreign Minister's decision to ban the UN chief from entering Israel, the United States merely says that it is not productive, implying that Israel could have taken more radical actions against the United Nations. This is not the first time Israel has taken such measures against UN officials. On February 12, 2024, Israeli Foreign Minister Katz said the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Albanese, would be banned from entering Israel, as the latter had expressed on the social media platform X, formerly named as Twitter before Elon Musk's acquisition, that the attack on Israel in October 2023 "in response to Israel's oppression of Palestinians", and the international community did not take any measures to prevent it. Katz expressed dissatisfaction with her remarks and asked the UN Secretary-General to fire Francesca Albanese. On October 1, 2024, UN Secretary-General Guterres issued a statement through his spokesperson's office, expressing concern over the escalation of the Lebanon-Israel conflict. The statement called for an immediate ceasefire, saying that a full-scale war in Lebanon must be avoided at all costs and that Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected. The statement mentioned Guterres had spoken with the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, earlier on the morning of October 1. He told Mikati that the entire UN system in Lebanon is mobilizing to help all those in need in his country. The UN leader also called on the international community for the $426 million humanitarian pledge launched in Beirut that day. The statement said Guterres and his representatives on the ground would continue to work to ease the situation. The Israeli Foreign Minister condemned the UN leader after Iran's missile attack and announced Israel does not allow him to enter the country. He is angry with the UN leader, as the United Nations does not stand with Israel like certain countries in the Middle East crisis. Since 1967, the UN has been proposing a two-nation solution to end the conflict between the Jews and Palestinians, and half a month ago, the UN even passed a nonbinding resolution raised by Palestine, a new UN permanent observer state admitted in May. The resolution calls for Israel to end its unlawful occupation of Palestinian land within a year. 124 countries supported it, 14 were against it, and 43 abstained. Although such a nonbinding measure makes little sense and cannot solve the problem in the Middle East, and certainly, Israel will not return the occupied land to Palestinians, the rift between Israel and the UN further drives Israel away from the organization. Israel's courage to slap the United Nations' face is surprising, though, as very few countries have done such things before. Even though most countries in the world understand the insignificance of the UN and do not pay due respect to the UN officials, they pretend to care about the organization and its officials. The United Nations is headquartered within the United States, and for many decades, the US has tried to use it as a tool to maintain its rules-based international order. However, the United States cannot fully control the organization with Russia and China counterbalancing its influence. The Russians have caused enough trouble for the US in the United Nations. The former Soviet Union and its successor, Russia, vetoed UN proposals 133 times. When China resumed its seat in the UN as the sole representative of China, replacing its breakaway province, Taiwan, the US encountered more setbacks as Beijing played the game more sophisticatedly than the Russians. Starting from the 1950s, when Beijing was still excluded from the United Nations, the communist leaders began making friends with undeveloped, or developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It was with the support of those friends that the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 2758 and the People's Republic of China resumed its seat in the United Nations in 1971. All member States of the UN, big or small, are said to be equal, each having a ticket to approve or object to a resolution. The United States can no longer use the United Nations as it wishes. As a result, the organization does not deserve America's respect anymore. It is not surprising that Israeli Foreign Minister Katz could humiliate the United Nations Secretary-General and announce him as persona non grata. He accused the UN chief of ‘backing terrorists, rapists, and murderers’ and branded him a stain on the history of the UN. He slapped the face of the UN leader, and those of all other member states endorsing the UN Charter, including the US. The relationship between the US and Israel is like that between a parent and a kid. Still, it is hard to distinguish which one is the daddy. After Joe Biden uttered clearly his full support of Israel, Matthew Miller has not expressed any disagreement with Israel's ban on the UN chief entering the country, merely saying that it is  "not productive at all." It seems the United Nations is not more important than a community centre, and the UN Secretary-General is equally insignificant as a clerk sitting behind an old and broken desk. The United Nations has become a joke, and who cares!