Israeli envoy takes out shredder, destroys UN Charter over Palestine vote

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, shredded a copy of the United Nations Charter at the General Assembly in protest over a vote to give additional rights to Palestine.

A video of Erdan using a miniature shredder to destroy a copy of the charter, the foundational treaty of the United Nations, has gone viral.

The Israeli envoy’s dramatic act came before the UN General Assembly voted 143 to 9 for a resolution asking the Security Council to make Palestine, which has “observer” status, into a full member. While India voted in favour of the resolution, 25 countries abstained. Nine nations, including the United States and Israel, voted against it.

Erdan said his act was to illustrate the General Assembly’s disregard for the document, which establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system.

While placing the charter in the shredder at the podium, the envoy said, “You are shredding the UN charter with your own hands… Shame on you.”

In a hard-hitting speech, Erdan blasted the UN members for wanting to “advance the establishment of a Palestinian terror state led by the Hitler of our time”.

He said that admitting Palestine as a member of the UN would give “the rights of a state to an entity that is already partly controlled by terrorists, and will be replaced by a force of child-murdering Hamas rapists”.

Meanwhile, Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, called the vote “historic” and “significant”.

The development comes as Israel appeared poised to mount a large-scale invasion of the southern city of Rafah. Israel has said that Rafah was the last stronghold of the Hamas militant group.

The death toll in the Israel-Gaza war, which broke out in October 2023, has soared to more than 34,500 people, most of them women and children, according to local health officials, reported AP.