Israel’s UN Ambassador Accuses UN Of ‘Mafia-Like’ ‘Shakedown’ Refusing U.S.-Backed Aid To Gaza

On Wednesday, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, accused the UN of a “brutal … Mafia-like” response to U.S.-backed non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that wanted to help in the humanitarian effort to provide aid to Gaza.

Danon accused the UN of removing the NGOs of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) from the shared aid database.

“Not only did the UN refuse to condemn Hamas for its efforts to sabotage the new aid senders — we have seen the pictures of Hamas blocking people — but the UN is now actively joining Hamas in trying to block that aid,” Danon noted. “The UN is using threats, intimidation, and retaliation against NGOs that choose to participate in the new humanitarian mechanism.”

“A number of major international NGOs made a decision to take part in the new aid initiative,” he said. “They decided to ignore the UN’s calls for a boycott. They’re allowed to do it. They said, ‘We want to give it a try; we want to help this new mechanism.’ They chose to act because they truly care about what’s happening.”

“The UN’s response was brutal. It was Mafia-like,” he charged. “Without any discussion, without due process, the UN removed those NGOs from the shared aid database. That database, I want to remind you, is the central system for tracking aid deliverers into Gaza. It was created and approved under a UN General Assembly resolution. But those NGOs, they were frozen out. It is the greatest violation of the UN’s own principles. It is extortion of well-meaning NGOs that refuse to kiss the ring, do the shakedown by UN mobsters. How can they do that?”

“I urge the UN, do not let your egos get in the way,” he stated. “Cooperate with the new mechanism; it has begun and it is operational. Shift your focus from dramatic press statements and intimidating NGOs to the work you are supposed to be doing.”

During a Security Council session, I exposed how the UN operates a system of extortion and threats against humanitarian organizations that cooperate with the U.S. aid mechanism in Gaza. This is mafia-like behavior and a flagrant violation of the UN’s core principles. The UN must… pic.twitter.com/5Hj6YtHqbP

— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) May 28, 2025

In mid-May, United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher — who last week made the outrageous and unsubstantiated charge that 14,000 babies would die in Gaza within two days unless aid could reach them,  a charge that was later retracted — criticized the idea of the U.S.-backed GHF, saying, “To those proposing an alternative modality for aid distribution, let’s not waste time. We already have a plan.” He added, “It is a cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement.”

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The UN’s hostility to Israel has been amply demonstrated for decades. In November 2024, Alice Nderitu, a courageous woman from Kenya who served as the United Nations’ Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, was fired after she stood up to the Israel-haters in the U.N. and refused to declare that Israel had committed “genocide” in its war against Hamas.

In October 2024, Israel banned United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from visiting the country. Israel Katz, the Foreign Minister of the Jewish state, wrote on X, “This is a Secretary-General who has yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on October 7, nor has he led any efforts to declare them a terrorist organization. A Secretary-General who gives backing to terrorists, rapists, and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran—the mothership of global terror—will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN. Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres.”

Today, I have declared UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres persona non grata in Israel and banned him from entering the country.

Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step…

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) October 2, 2024

In July 2024, the anti-Israel International Court of Justice, an arm of the United Nations, ruled that Israel’s presence in the biblical areas of Judea and Samaria was “unlawful,” and that Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, as well as in East Jerusalem, violated international law.

East Jerusalem includes the Temple Mount, the holiest place in the world for Jews.