TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / August 20, 2024
“This building, which may look nice from the outside, is actually twisted and distorted.”
Outgoing Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, has said the United Nations headquarters in New York should be “wiped off the face of the earth,” Israeli media reported.
“The UN building should be closed and wiped off from the face of the earth,” Erdan told Israeli daily Maariv in an interview published on Tuesday, according to the Anadolu news agency.
“This building, which may look nice from the outside, is actually twisted and distorted,” said Erdan.
The Times of Israel, meanwhile, reported that in an upcoming interview with i24News, Erdan said: “I’m coming out with a feeling of satisfaction on one hand, of my battle and work here, but on the other hand with great distress and frustration with the fact that this building, which may look nice from the outside, is actually twisted and distorted.”
Earlier Criticisms
Erdan’s successor, Danny Ben Yosef Danon, took over on Monday.
On his plans for the future, Erdan reportedly said he sees himself leading the right-wing Likud Party after controversial Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This was not the first time Erdan had attacked the UN, reported Anadolu, as he previously criticized UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Israel has faced international condemnations over its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
Gilad Erdan
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,173 Palestinians have been killed, and 92,857 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
