Likud member Danny Danon tapped as Israeli envoy to UN

By Said Amori

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday appointed his party member Danny Danon as the next ambassador to the United Nations.

Danon will replace Gilad Erdan, whose term has ended.

“Danon has extensive experience in the international arena,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

This will be Danon’s second stint at the UN. He previously served as Israel’s envoy to the UN from 2015 to 2020.

Last November, Danon triggered controversy by calling on world countries to take in Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip amid a global outrage over Israel’s deadly offensive on the enclave.

Israel has continued its brutal onslaught on Gaza since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 37,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 84,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala