When the United Nations added Israel to a blacklist of countries suspected of committing sexual violence in conflict zones last May, Israel’s seasoned ambassador to the global institution, Danny Danon, went into attack mode.
A week after the report was published – and after the Foreign Ministry threatened to sever all ties with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres – Danon used a meeting marking the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict to demand that the person behind the report resign.
“You caved to the secretary-general’s obsession with targeting Israel,” Danon accused Pramila Patten, the secretary-general’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict.
After being rebuked for his tone and told to be quiet by another UN official – Vanessa Fraser, the secretary-general’s special representative for children and armed conflict – Danon retorted: “We are a member state, and you work for the UN, and you will be quiet now. You will be quiet... you and your shameful report.”
The angry exchange sparked headlines worldwide, but for Danon, a veteran Israeli politician, former government minister, and now seasoned diplomat, such exchanges, especially at the UN and particularly since Hamas’s October 7 attacks, are nothing new.
Even before October 7, he recalled in a recent interview with The Jerusalem Report, such hostility was everywhere in the halls of the New York-based organization, even though he believes it was masked much better.
Now, those masks are off, said Danon, and Israel must be in the room to stand up for itself.
Accusations of genocide
This month, the international forum will hold its annual General Assembly, with heads of state from 193 countries descending on the organization’s headquarters in the heart of Manhattan.
Among those world leaders will be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. With tension surrounding the nearly three-year war in Gaza, including accusations of genocide, Netanyahu is likely to receive a frosty reception.
Already, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has called for Netanyahu to be arrested as soon as he touches down in the city, even though such an arrest is not legally possible.
Inside the halls of the UN, the Israeli leader and the country’s ambassador are also likely to face protests.
But hostile world leaders storming out of the General Assembly as soon as Netanyahu steps up to speak at the podium is nothing new.
“I’m sure the prime minister will be ready for any provocations,” commented Danon, adding, “The mayor is causing instability by calling for people to demonstrate; that will make this year much harder, but inside the hall, both myself and the prime minister have gone through this so many times, I don’t think we can be surprised.”
It’s true that not much seems to surprise Danon, who spent nearly a decade as a member of the Knesset and served as deputy minister of defense from 2013 to 2014, before being appointed Israel’s permanent representative to the UN, serving in that position from 2015 to 2020.
Yet even the longtime politician was shocked by the extreme bias against Israel that greeted him when he returned to the UN in August 2024. This time, he said, it’s not only coming from the obvious member states but from the UN officials themselves, including Guterres.
Danon said that immediately after the October 7 attack, “we saw everyone supporting us, but they forgot very fast what happened... and instead focused on the situation in Gaza.
“My challenge was to keep reminding them that we still had hostages there,” he said, recalling how in every speech he made until the final hostage came home, he would start by reminding UN officials and other member states that the war would not end until all the hostages were returned to Israel.
“I could tell by the looks the delegates gave me that they didn’t believe it,” Danon noted. “They were sure it was an excuse, and everything was all about the suffering in Gaza.
“The UN is supposed to be a place that encourages dialogue and engagement, but instead, it has become a platform to incite against Israel, and UN officials were actually taking an active part in that.”
Changing the narrative
Danon gave the example of UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, a former British diplomat, who warned alarmingly in May 2025 that 14,000 babies and infants in Gaza were at imminent risk of dying.
Later, the UN corrected Fletcher’s assessment, but, said Danon, he was the first person to use the term “genocide” in relation to Gaza, and after that it was adopted by other officials and country representatives.
“Once he used it, then immediately many member states adopted it, too, and it became the narrative of the UN, even though it was a baseless lie,” said the Israeli diplomat, describing a trajectory whereby UN officials led the way for member states to feel more comfortable attacking Israel.
“That’s when we saw the secretary-general and other UN officials fighting against Israel, instead of becoming a player in the negotiations or trying to finish the conflict,” Danon said. “It became very one-sided and was no longer effective in any negotiations.”
Danon admitted he was shocked by the change in attitude, not because Israel was ever particularly welcome at the UN before October 7 and the Gaza war, but, he said, “I was used to the games that they were playing.
“They would always say ‘We are objective, we are professionals,’ but now they were not even playing that game,” he said.
Danon described an exchange he had with Guterres when he came to present his credentials before his second term.
“I asked him, ‘How come you haven’t visited Israel since October 7? You know, you are the secretary-general of the United Nations, and this was the biggest atrocity since the Holocaust against the Jewish people,’” recounted Danon.
“His answer was very disappointing. He said: ‘Bibi didn’t send me an invitation letter, and that’s why I didn’t go.’”
Guterres’s response hit Danon hard. The two had formed a friendship during his previous stint in New York, with the secretary-general joining Danon and his family for Shabbat dinners, attending Israel-connected events, and even visiting the country on an official trip with Danon in 2017.
“We had a very good relationship; I traveled with him to Israel, he came to my house for dinner, and we had a lot of dialogue, but it all changed when I came back to the UN.... Then I met a totally different man,” Danon said.
No neutrality
The ambassador said he believes the Gaza war was one factor that prompted the change. But also, the fact that Guterres is retiring from his role at the end of the year means “he cares less about presenting himself as an objective player.
“The first time I was here, he wanted to be reelected, and he knew that he needed the support of the US and full consensus [from member states], so he was nice to everyone. But now [that] he’s in his second [and final] term, he is showing his real face,” said Danon.
He added: “We knew his background... but we hoped that he would be objective, and it’s very unfortunate to see what has happened to him.”
Danon said Guterres’s bias is clear on other issues, not only Israel, making him less effective in a mediation role.
With Guterres setting such a tone, Danon said it is easy for other UN officials to take a certain position or be unabashedly biased, even though their role is meant to be neutral and objective.
Regarding the decision to include Israel on the UN’s blacklist for committing sexual crimes, Danon called it “outrageous.”
“It was his decision, and it was baseless,” he said. “He wants to take an active role against Israel, and he’s using the platform of the UN for that.”
But the veteran ambassador is hopeful that as long as Israel remains a strong presence in the international forum, there is a chance for change.
“It’s not gonna be overnight,” said Danon, explaining that the secretary-general has nominated like-minded people for a whole host of special rapporteur and commissioner positions.
Recalling the heated exchange he had with Fraser in June, Danon said: “Afterward, when we looked at her social media, we saw all sorts of antisemitic posts.... No one seems to be monitoring this, and that is something we want to install at the UN.”
Danon believes there can be a shift in a different direction, as long as Israel continues with its diplomacy and pressure.
“We need to wait for this secretary-general to leave,” he said, adding that until then, “we are working on exposing the institutional antisemitism at the UN, and we hope that we will be able to bring about change.”
Friends at the UN
Danon also said there are signs of change, with more and more countries showing their support for Israel in different ways.
“We do have friends at the UN, and we appreciate them,” he said. “I think it’s easier now. During the war, it was very hard for countries to take sides, but now they have more time, and they’re looking at the issues differently.”
Danon used the example of disarming Hamas in Gaza. “I think many countries support that now because they realize that there is no future for Gaza with Hamas there.”
Asked whether he thinks Israel should just shut up shop in such a hostile, unbalanced forum as the UN, Danon was pragmatic.
“My approach is that we have to be in the room, and we don’t just leave, for two reasons.... First, our friends will not speak up for us if we are not there fighting for ourselves, and we do have friends; second, if we are not there, it will be much easier to promote hate against us, to sanction us, and do other things.
“I think we have to reform the UN dramatically but not ignore it,” he said, adding, “Every time I enter a room and make the argument for Israel, it is much harder for those people who hate us to come and spread their lies.”■