What on earth was the UN Secretary General thinking?

“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” Antonio Guterres said, while backing calls for a ceasefire. “[There have been] clear violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza…the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum”.

Whatever the complexities of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, the timing of such an incendiary statement – implying for many that the Hamas massacre of over 1,400 people a fortnight ago can be explained, nay justified, by Israeli action in the region – is outrageous.

No one is doubting that there has been wrongdoing by both sides over the many, many decades of this terrible conflict, but the idea that these actions are in some way rational, as opposed to the product of a hideous ideology akin to that of Isis, is appalling. When Isis began beheading prisoners, we did not try and rationalise it in this way. We condemned it outright, saying – rightly – that it was beyond the pale regardless of what the terrorists believed were their legitimate grievances.

This may sound like a simple point, but at what point did we totally abandon the idea that people are rational human beings capable of free will? I have lost count over the past two weeks the number of times I have heard people say similar remarks to Mr Guterres’, which is simply another way of saying that people in unfortunate circumstances – whether of their own making or not – will inevitably turn to violence, as if they are not in control of themselves. There is little evidence for such a proposition. History is full of people who have lived in the most dire of circumstances who have not then resorted to beheading babies.

But I digress. However idiotic the comments, the issue here is not only their content, but who said them, and the damage that will be done by his saying them. One could argue such remarks are completely out of step with the principles of the UN, for starters, but more fundamentally it shows a total lack of a political antenna. More than anyone else, Guterres has the responsibility to be measured and not give even the hint or perception that he is siding with extremists like Hamas. No wonder the Israelis are calling for Guterres to resign.

Throughout Guterres’s tenure as UN chief, there has been one blunder after another. Leaks from the Pentagon in the summer suggested the US administration believed he was far too accommodating of Russian interests when negotiating the grain deal in Ukraine – which Russia then pulled out of when it suited them, giving them a major trump card in the war.

If he believes that Hamas and its supporters, and Russia and its supporters, are engaged in evil acts – as he surely should do – then he should know that any ground he concedes to them will be used against the UN and the values it purports to uphold. If you give autocrats or absolutists an inch, they will take a mile. Look already at the gleeful propaganda by hostile actors spreading his remarks on social media. As we speak, Russia is tabling a motion for a ceasefire in Gaza, as it continues to bomb schools and hospitals in Ukraine.

If he does not think they are involved in evil acts, but legitimate acts of retribution for wrongs done to them, then – well – what on earth is he doing running the UN? This is not how matters are meant to be settled.

I recently wrote about the urgency of the need for the reform of an increasingly impotent UN. When its own leader is making statements that can be seen as legitimising violence, the first reform – surely – has to be his removal.

The world is spiralling into chaos, and needs great statesmen more than ever. But they are few and far between. Alas, as far as many are concerned, the UN – far from offering the leadership we sorely need – has become an asset to those who wish to do us harm.