Israeli foreign minister declares UN chief 'persona non grata,' banned from entering the country due to anti-Israel bias

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz officially announced that UN Sec.-Gen. António Guterres is banned from entering the Jewish state due to his persistent hostility toward Israel.

Katz’s decision to declare Guterres 'persona non grata' came swiftly after the UN leader refrained from explicitly condemning the Iranian regime’s unprovoked missile attack on Israel on Tuesday.

"Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil," Katz wrote on 𝕏. "Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres."

Following Iran's missile barrage against Israel on Tuesday evening, Guterres issued a statement: “I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation,” However, the UN chief did not explicitly condemn the Iranian regime for its aggression.

“This must stop.  We absolutely need a ceasefire,” Guterres added.

The United States and other Western nations condemned the Iranian missile attack, However, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller criticized Katz's call to ban Guterres from Israel, arguing that it is "not productive at all."

Miller argued that Israel was undermining its international reputation by banning the UN chief from entering the country.

"One of the things we've always said that Israel needs to be cognizant of throughout this conflict is its standing in the world, and steps like this are not productive to improve its standing in the world," Miller said.

However, Katz noted that this was not the first time that the UN chief had failed to condemn the aggression of Iran and its regional terror proxies, who continue to call for Israel's destruction.

"A Secretary-General who gives backing to terrorists, rapists, and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran – the mothership of global terror – will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN," Katz stated.

In late October, the UN chief made a controversial statement that appeared to whitewash and justify the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of Israel and the terror group's massacre of countless Israeli civilians, including men, women, children and the elderly.

“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum," Guterres stated at the time, claiming that Gaza has been subjected to "56 years of suffocating occupation.”

The UN chief’s statement overlooks the fact that Israel unilaterally withdrew its military forces from the Gaza Strip in 2005. At the time, some 8,000 Israeli civilians were removed from their homes in the Gaza Strip during the disengagement. By 2007, when Hamas violently took control of Gaza from the ruling Fatah party, there were no Israeli soldiers or civilians in the territory.

On International Women’s Day in March, Katz urged the UN Security Council to condemn the systematic sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas terrorists against Israeli women.

“The US, UK, and France back my call for a UN Security Council session on Hamas's sexual violence. On International Women's Day, the @UN and the secretary general @antonioguterres must act, not be silent. Time to declare Hamas a terror group and call for the release of all hostages,” Katz stated.

Despite evidence of sexual crimes committed by Hamas and its allies, the UN chief decided in April to exclude Hamas from the UN’s conflict-related sexual violence blacklist. At the time, Israel strongly criticized the UN, accusing it of overlooking Hamas's systematic crimes against humanity, particularly those committed during and after the Oct. 7 attacks.