On Wednesday, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the United Nations Martin Griffiths made a rather disturbing claim about Hamas, claiming during an interview with Sky News that "Hamas is not a terrorist group."
Griffiths had been asked about Israel's plan "to eliminate Hamas and have them never be a part of any future negotiation when it comes to Gaza" and if he thinks that's "realistic."
"I think it's very difficult," Griffiths offered, noting that he's "worked with many terrorist and insurgent groups." He then casually claimed, "Hamas is not a terrorist group for us, of course, as you know." Adding, "It's a political movement."
Israel's X account shared the clip, noting, "[W]hat an abomination the UN has become," as they also tagged the agency in a post.
The @UNReliefChief denies that the Nazi organization Hamas is a terrorist organization and calls it a "political movement". Shame on him. pic.twitter.com/piK1paMiRK
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) February 15, 2024
Griffiths' claims come even as Hamas has been designated as one of the "Foreign Terrorist Organizations" by the U.S. State Department, a distinction it's held since October 8, 1997.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has also described Hamas as being "worse than ISIS."
As a reminder, Hamas targeted men, women, and children on October 7, killing 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians. When it comes to the IDF members they killed, they decapitated and even desecrated their corpses, allowing cheering civilians to play with their heads. It was the bloodiest day in Israel's history and the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas' victims were subject to rape, torture, and 240 were taken hostage.
Townhall has also witnessed footage from that day, which, as horrific as it is, amounted to less than 10 percent of what footage exists.
Hamas also aims to keep attacking Israel, thus making calls for a ceasefire, as the UN has engaged in, beneficial only to Hamas. A ceasefire was in place before the October 7 attack, and Hamas also broke the temporary ceasefire that had been in place last November for hostage negotiations.
Reporting on the segment from the Jerusalem Post highlighted other problem points, not just with what Griffiths said, but what he left out [added emphasis]:
Griffiths also claimed that the United Nations was struggling to get aid into Gaza and that Palestinians had nowhere safe to evacuate to now that Israel had begun operations in Rafah.
...
Griffiths affirmed that the United Nations would not participate in the forced evacuation of Palestinian civilians into safe zones.
Griffith [sic] did not mention the two hostages the IDF rescued from Rafah, proving that Hamas was carrying out their illegal activities within a heavily populated civilian area.
Griffiths' comments have been trending via "#DefundTheUN." Republican members of Congress have sponsored legislation to defund the UNRWA and the UN as a whole. The UNRWA has faced scrutiny for its ties to Hamas, and the Biden administration has temporarily paused funding to the agency, though it only applies to new and additional funding.
Among those posting about defunding the UN are Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who have led an effort to do so. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), sharing the above article from the Jerusalem Post, called such comments from Griffiths "sickening."
Rep. Roy and @BasedMikeLee have the bill to #DefundTheUN ⤵️ https://t.co/lvH7mJcDrf pic.twitter.com/agw8vMbTcG
— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) February 15, 2024
Agreed. https://t.co/lbvNGDOCjc
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) February 15, 2024
This is sickening.https://t.co/CHJ2P3VvQ9
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) February 15, 2024
The comments are indeed "sickening," but unfortunately, not all that surprising coming from the anti-Israel UN, which has been considerably slow to call out Hamas for the October 7 attack, in addition to the concerns mentioned above about UNRWA. That even includes a reluctance from the UN Women to properly call out the gruesome sexual assaults and rapes that Hamas perpetrated against Israelis, including their murder victims and hostages. As we covered at the time, in the hours after that October 7 attack, the UN Women X account was mostly silent and instead chose to prioritize posting about International Lesbian Day.
From social media posts to statements and documents, the UN has shown a prioritization of Gaza civilians during the Israel-Gaza conflict.
After the backlash, Griffiths on Thursday posted to his own X account in an attempt to clean up his remarks, focusing on his remarks about not designating Hamas to be a terrorist organization.
Seeking to "clarify," Griffiths posted that "Hamas is not on the list of groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United Nations Security Council." Adding, "[T]his doesn't make their acts of terror on 7 October any less horrific and reprehensible, as I've been saying all along." But again, the UN has been slow to properly condemn the horrific attack from the start.
The Israel X account wasn't buying his defense. Why should they, with the pattern the UN has already shown?
Just to clarify: @UNReliefChief you’re a Hamas apologist and your statements are an insult to every single victim of
— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) February 15, 2024
October 7th.
Pathetic. https://t.co/blfZgLHyzl
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