Israeli ambassador to UN calls for defunding UN agencies during Palm Beach event

As the international community continues to pressure Israel into accepting a cease-fire in its war with Hamas, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations called this week for the defunding of key U.N. agencies and the expulsion of all U.N. officials from Israel and the Palestinian territories.

“All of these U.N. employees operating and working in the Palestinian Authority, they received visas from Israel. So first and foremost, I think, we should cancel their visas ... We should expel them," said Gilad Erdan, speaking Wednesday at Palm Beach Synagogue.

Addressing what he said was the systemic anti-Israel bias of the United Nations, Erdan said, "U.N. employees who are exploiting their presence in Israel, to report and spread lies and distort the truth and reality, they shouldn’t stay in Israel."

The ambassador's appearance was part of the Palm Beach Synagogue’s Critical Conversation Series.

Responding to a question from moderator Rivka Kidron about how the U.N. can be reformed, Erdan said while no fundamental change could occur to the U.N. in the present, he believed that the U.S could start moving to defund U.N. agencies, as former President Donald Trump had previously done.

“I’m not going to get myself involved in American politics, but I can talk about facts. During President Trump, they made the right decision to defund UNRWA,” he said, referring to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

Erdan noted that the United States is the largest state funder for the U.N.

“I think it should be our foreign policy to campaign for defunding each and every UN agency that doesn’t advance the values we all share as democracies,” said Erdan, a Likud Party member and former Israeli ambassador to the U.S.

The war, sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel that killed nearly 1,200 and saw 240 being kidnapped — more than half of whom remain hostage — has left more than 20,000 Palestinians dead, most of those women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

More: Death toll in Gaza reaches grim milestone: Live updates

More than 600 people showed up to hear Erdan speak, according to Rabbi Moshe Scheiner, who said some people had to be turned away.

Discussion of the United Nations began with Erdan delivering a brief retelling of Israeli/U.N. diplomatic history, which he contends displays a transition from supporting the creation of Israel in the late 1940s to being the home of anti-Israel bias.

“We have to understand the strategy of our enemies, and why they picked the U.N. as their main arena to attack and delegitimize Israel,” Erdan said.

He said it comes as a result of the Arab nations’ failure to destroy Israel during the 1948 war that saw Israel independence, the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

“They could not defeat the [Israel Defense Forces] on the conventional battlefield, so they came up with a new strategy,” Erdan said.

According to Erdan, that new strategy is a two-pronged approach, targeting civilians, and then utilizing the U.N. to impede any Israeli military action.

“They want families in Israel to feel Israel is not a safe place to raise our kids,” said Erdan. “How they complement this strategy is by exploiting the U.N.”

Castigating the General Assembly, where two nonbinding cease-fire resolutions have passed, Erdan said that more than half of U.N. member states are nondemocratic, and criticized the General Assembly's voting practice, which gives each country one vote.

“Every country is equal. The vote of the United States equals the vote of Cuba, of Venezuela, or some islands that I learned their names only after I came here (the U.N.), like St. Vincent ... they have less people than Palm Beach, but they still can vote in the General Assembly,” said Erdan.

Asked by Kidron why Israel continues to participate as a U.N member, Erdan pointed to the platform the U.N. provides in creating beneficial economic opportunities, and noted that if he wasn’t there, the Arab countries would have no pushback.

“I’m not naive, I don’t think I will be able to change the voting patterns of most of the Arab countries, or the voting patterns of Cuba and other allies of Iran," Erdan said. “But I do believe it is my role to preserve our legitimacy to the civilized world.”

“Israel represents one-tenth of one percent of the world’s population, and we receive per average, 70% of the U.N’s condemnation,” Erdan told the crowd, which appeared to react angrily. “More than Iran, Syria, Russia and North Korea combined.”

The conversation then turned to the Abraham Accords, a group of bilateral agreements normalizing relations between Israel and select Arab countries based on recognizing Israel's sovereign status. Erdan said the Oct. 7 attack was an attempt by Iran to upend current diplomatic talks with Saudi Arabia.

He said Arab diplomats had shown their support for Israel.

“Privately, they tell me that they understand us, they know the savagery and the brutality of Hamas,” he said. “They make these statements calling for a cease-fire, but the truth is they know who we are fighting.”

Rivnik asked Erdan how he felt about the future U.S/Israel relationship, stating that while President Joe Biden continues to support Israel, there had been protests by young Democrats, progressive and college students.

Erdan thanked the Biden administration for its support.

“I feel it every day in the U.N.,” said Erdan. “It’s not that we agree on everything ... Still, the U.S. is the only reliable partner in the U.N.”

However, his tone changed when discussing the protests in the U.S. calling for a cease-fire, which he labeled with no exception as “marching in support of Hamas.”

“It should frighten every American to see what is happening in college campuses, the ignorance of young people here supporting baby killers,” said Erdan. “But I still feel there is still hope ... I feel a sense of unity with the Jewish people I never felt before.”

He blamed social media for demonstrations of Palestinian support.

“When there’s 1.6 billion Muslims all across the globe, and there only 7 million Jews outside of Israel, we have to bridge this gap,” he said.

During a brief question-and-answer session, an attendee asked what Israel would consider to be the benchmark in knowing Hamas is destroyed.

“When they stop launching missiles and rockets and even more importantly, to remove them from power ... when it happens you will know it,” Erdan said. “I hope it would take a few more weeks, but not more than four to eight weeks.”

Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at dlasa@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Israel's UN envoy wants agency officials in Israel, Palestine expelled