Israeli envoy and UN official clash at hearing on children in conflict

A heated shouting match erupted at the United Nations between Israel's ambassador and the UN's special representative for children and armed conflict over a report blacklisting Israel for alleged abuses.

Diplomatic niceties broke down at the United Nations ​on Friday when Israel's ambassador and ​the U.N. secretary-general's special representative for ‌children ​and armed conflict became embroiled in a furious shouting match at a public hearing. At a meeting in New York to ‌mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Israeli envoy, Danny Danon, demanded the resignation of Pramila Patten, who produced a report that blacklisted Israel for such ‌alleged abuses for the first time, accusing her of bias. "You caved to the secretary-general's ‌obsession with targeting Israel," Danon said, referring to U.N. chief Antonio Guterres. Another U.N. official, Vanessa Frazier, Guterres' representative for children and armed conflict and compiler of a separate report that also blacklists Israel, interjected by shouting a point ⁠of ​order. She demanded that ⁠Danon refrain from "personal attacks" and added that she had "verified evidence."

Danon said Frazier should be quiet. "We are a ⁠member state, and you work for the U.N., and you will be quiet now. You will ​be quiet ... you and your shameful report," he said. Frazier, Malta's former U.N. ambassador, issued ⁠her report this week on behalf of Guterres warning that Israeli settler groups could be added to a global ⁠blacklist ​for violations against children as the U.N. chief voiced alarm at what he called a "staggering" rise in violations against Palestinian children.

Israel itself already features in that ⁠report's so-called list of shame annexes for alleged violations. When Patten's report was issued last month, ⁠Danon called it "a ⁠new low" and Israel's foreign ministry vowed to sever all ties with Guterres, who leaves office after 10 years at the year-end.

Both reports ‌also blacklist ‌Israel's arch enemy Hamas.