Israel will not attend an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Gaza scheduled for Tuesday due to the Jewish New Year, according to its UN representative, calling the timing “regrettable.”
As a country directly touched by the UN’s highest security body’s deliberations, the Middle-East nation was asked to speak at the Council’s debate of the tragic conflict in Gaza during the UN’s high-level week.
The country’s troops are launching a major ground offensive to take Gaza’s largest metropolitan center, with AFP film showing plumes of smoke rising over Gaza City on Monday as Palestinians carrying their belongings fled southward.
“I wish to inform you that the delegation of Israel will not participate in this meeting, as it coincides with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year,” Ambassador Danny Danon said in a separate letter to the rotating Security Council president.
“Despite Israel’s request to the Presidency and Council members to reschedule, the meeting remains set for that date—one of the most significant in the Jewish calendar, marking the start of the High Holy Days.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, following a series of Western countries’ recognitions of a Palestinian state, which Israel has vehemently opposed.
“It’s unfortunate that the Security Council will meet without Israel,” Danon said in a video statement issued Monday.
