Israel has informed the United Nations that it will not renew the visa of its humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, a UN spokesman said on Friday, after Israeli authorities said the diplomat could not be impartial.
In December 2020, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Lynn Hastings of Canada as his Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process and as Housing Coordinator for the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “We were informed by Israeli authorities that they would not renew Hastings’ visa after the deadline, sometime at the end of this month,” Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
Dujarric declined to specify whether Hastings, who lives in Jerusalem, will be replaced or continue her work at a different base. And he assured that Guterres retains “full confidence” in Hastings. “You saw some public attacks against her on Twitter that were completely unacceptable,” the spokesperson said.
In late October, Israel’s Foreign Ministry attacked Hastings on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying: “According to UN ethics, she should be impartial and objective, but unfortunately she is not.” “Hastings’ dangerous rhetoric puts innocent Israeli civilians and Palestinians at risk,” said the post, which included a video claiming Hastings was slow to condemn Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Other UN representatives have faced criticism from Israeli authorities since the start of the conflict. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan has repeatedly called for Guterres’ resignation and warned in late October that Israel would stop granting visas to UN envoys, accusing other officials at the organization of “spreading lies about the UN. situation.
Source: DN
