Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan on Tuesday was elected, to the position of Vice-President of the 77th United Nations General Assembly.
Gilad Erdan will be one of 21 vice presidents during the annual session, which begins on September 18, in a vote held at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
As per media reports, Erdan will start working in his position with the General Assembly convening next September, and for a period of one year.
It is worth noting that, as part of his role, Erdan will chair the meetings of the General Assembly and will participate in setting the agenda for the discussions.
In this context, Erdan commented on the new position, “I will now be representing Israel in a position at the heart of the U.N. Nothing will stop me—and I mean nothing—from fighting the discrimination in the U.N. against Israel,” Times of Israel reported.
Palestine denounces appointment of Gilad Erdan
For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said in a press statement, “The appointment of the representative of the occupying Zionist entity, Gilad Erdan, to a high-ranking UN position, is an insult to the values of freedom and justice, and a threat to international peace and security.”
Hamas strongly condemned Erdan’s appointment, and considered it “a provocation to the feelings of our people and those who love peace and justice in the world, and an insult to the international system that bears the responsibility of ending the occupation in Palestine, and holding its leaders accountable for the crimes and terrorism they committed against the Palestinian people and the peoples of the Arab region.”
The appointment of Erdan as Vice-President of the United Nations General Assembly was not the first of its kind for an Israeli envoy, his predecessor Danny Danon was elected as one of the Vice-Presidents of the 72nd session of the Assembly in 2017.
In several recent initiatives, the representative of Israel was elected to serve on the United Nations Economic Council in 2021, and Odilia Vitosi became the first representative of Israel to the Committee of Experts on Disability in 2020.
Other countries elected as Vice Presidents of the 77th United Nations General Assembly are Benin, Burundi, Kenya, Mauritania, Niger, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Chile, El Salvador, Jamaica, Estonia, Vietnam, and Australia.
The United Nations General Assembly, established in 1945, is at the fore of the organization as a forum for multilateral discussions on regional and international issues covered by the United Nations Charter.
