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Leon Duval
A writer interested in yesterday today and tomorrow

To the Secretary General of the United Nations

(WARNING: This article contains graphic descriptions of atrocities)

I will come straight to the point and ignore the introductory salutations. Since I have zero respect for you, and your morally bankrupt organization I will not commence with the customary, dear sir. To be frank Mr Guterres, the only words I have to describe the United Nations is that this is an organization where the fish stinks from the head.

In this regard I draw your attention to the outrageous assertion you made at a meeting of the UN security council 24th October 2023. You placed blame on the State of Israel for the day of savagery, 7-10-23, when over 1,400 men, women, and children were slaughtered by savages who are disposable pawns of the Islamic Republic of Iran and go by the name Hamas. The victims, not only Israelis, were mutilated and tortured, many burnt alive, young girls were raped and 235 people taken hostage. The hostages are now human shields imprisoned underground in the web of tunnels Hamas constructed under the surface of the Gaza strip. Much of the funding for constructing these tunnels originated from monies contributed by agencies of the United Nations, funds supposedly earmarked for humanitarian purposes.

Prior to Tuesday October 24th 2023 I thought that the UN was unable to sink any lower on the morality scale and then, this from you.

“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”

It is unconscionable that the secretary general of the UN did not bother to check historical facts before making outrageously insensitive assertions at a time the Jewish world was reeling in shock after yet another massacre, when “never again” became “once again”.

Did you not know Mr. Guterres, it is after all a matter of public record, that before 2005 the Gaza strip was always “occupied”, initially by the Ottomans, then by Egypt, and finally by Israel between 1967 to 2005. Did you not know Mr. Guterres that in 2005 Israel withdrew from that place, on 7-10-23 there were no Jews living there. It had become the perfect Nazi enclave, Judenrein!

After Israel withdrew, Gaza fell under the control of the Palestinian Authority and because their rule was so corrupt the Gazans chose to be ruled by Hamas. The huge sums of money provided to the people of Gaza in the form of humanitarian aid was redirected into what became the main industry of Gaza, terrorism. Aid money was used to build rockets, to create a 240km network of underground tunnels used for terrorist operations. Their schools, many funded by UNWRA an agency of the UN taught Gazan children to hate, not only Israel, but also the Jews as a people.

Mr Guterres it is unconscionable that your words turned victims into perpetrators and perpetrators into victims, however we have already established you are interested in agendas rather than facts. Possibly history is not your strong suit so maybe current events will assist you to recalibrate your non functioning moral compass.

Zaka is an international not for profit volunteer organisation whose members are mobilised when there is a terror attack, a national disaster, or major accident. Their role is to ensure that the dead are treated with the respect mandated by Jewish law. Horrific scenes after bombings, shootings or national disasters are not unfamiliar to their members. Here is a testimony from a Zaka volunteer who, before 7-10-23, believed he had seen everything.

The first house we saw (catches breath has to get himself together before carrying on) was a couple, father and mother, on their knees, but now they were head down, hands tied behind their back (stops, struggling to go on). On the other side of the room was a seven year old child, a boy, also a girl about six years old across from their parents, hands tied to the backs, same position on the knees, and now heads down. The bodies were tortured. Now use your imagination who was tortured before, who saw, was it the children looking at the parents being tortured or the parents seeing their children? How tortured, body pieces, an eye just taken out, one eye, fingers being… (can’t continue has to regain composure) and all this happened!! In the end they all had a bullet. And I am not finished. In the middle there is a table, these terrorists were sitting and eating the Saturday meal prepared for this family, they ate the meal while torturing the children!

He continues;

We see a woman, she was about 30, lying in a big puddle of blood face down. We have to turn her over to put her into the body bag. She was pregnant, her stomach butchered open, the baby connected to the cord was stabbed!!! She was shot in the back. Imagine, did she see what was done to her baby? Maybe she did not have that suffering. We are debating do we use two body bags? We decide we will use one because we don’t want to disconnect this baby from the mother.

Extract from an interview, a mother Rachel Polin Goldberg talking about her son.

Interviewer: How are you?
Rachel: A lot of people keep saying that, so, picture a mother, and picture her being told that her son is one of two things, dead, or being held hostage in Gaza with his arm blown off; and Gaza is currently a war zone. That’s how I am doing. I am doing how anyone’s mother will be doing if those are the two chances in front of you.
Interviewer: If that was my son I don’t know if I would be able to wake up in the morning, I am not sure how you are.

Mr Guterres I sincerely hope you do not feel motivated to comment about the Holocaust perpetrated on the Jewish people during 1939-1945. Possibly you believe this was also not committed in a vacuum, after all, the Germans were forced to suffer over 500 years of Jewish presence a terrible fate. Rest assured Mr Guterres NEVER AGAIN will be restored, Jewish blood is no longer shed without repercussions. The perpetrators of the 7-10-23 massacre will be eliminated and this time by the Jewish people.

About the Author
Born in South Africa, at age 27 emigrated to Melbourne Australia where I lived for 40 years before moving to Jerusalem in 2015. My profession was to teach and consult in the area of strategic financial management. Now retired, I devote my time to guiding visitors through Yad Vashem and reading and writing about Jewish history and contemporary issues affecting both Israel and the Jewish people.