By Ayman Okeil
If you do not feel ashamed, then do whatever you like. Some attribute this saying to a Prophetic hadith, others to an ancient adage, while still others claim it may have been used as the opening line of either an old or a modern poem, something a man said when criticizing other men.
In any case, this description applies perfectly to what the Permanent Representative of the Israeli occupation authority to the United Nations, based in New York, said in his message addressed to the UN Secretary-General in May 2026, as well as to the President of the UN General Assembly and the President of the UN Security Council. In that message, he denied that the occupation authority’s forces were accused of violence and physical assaults against civilians, including women and children in the Gaza Strip. He also expressed astonishment at what he described as a “media campaign” against Israel in Western press coverage. He specifically referenced an article he called malicious, published in The New York Times, and said the article had “fallen to the lowest depths” of journalistic practice. The article accuses the occupation authority of committing the worst violations in Gaza, something the Permanent Representative evidently did not like. He goes on repeating that the most ethical army in the world does not commit such acts, as if we do not wake up every day to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by this army under flimsy pretexts.
The Permanent Representative defended the occupation authority, boasting that Israel is a state of justice and the rule of law, as well as a democracy. At the core of his defense, he pointed out that Israel cooperates with the Special Rapporteur of the Secretary-General on violence against women in situations of armed conflict. He added that Israel provided detailed information on the legal framework and oversight mechanisms to prevent conflict-related sexual violence and to ensure accountability. Of course, all of this is far from the truth.
I will not reiterate here what reports document daily, hundreds of violations related to sexual and physical violence against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Yet the practice of sexual violence against civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories is confirmed by treaty bodies within the United Nations and by some mandates under the UN’s Special Procedures. This, in turn, led to the inclusion of the Israeli Prison Service within the “black list” of entities accused of committing sexual violence in armed conflicts, according to a report issued by the Office of the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres. According to the report, the UN verified 31 cases of sexual violence committed by the Israeli occupation authority against Palestinians in 2025, of which 13 were in 2025, and 18 occurred in the years 2023 and 2024. Although I believe the number of cases is far higher. Here, we would remind the Permanent Representative, if he had forgotten, that his country’s military prosecutor resigned after a leaked video recorded by a security camera showed soldiers mistreating a Palestinian detainee inside an Israeli military prison. That is only one small example, an iota in a sea of innumerable violations committed by the Israeli occupation authority.
On May 28, 2026, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to sever all ties with the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General, reaffirming that it will not reconsider the decision until a new Secretary-General is appointed. Therefore, the simplest thing that can be said, and the saying that applies to them, is: “If you do not feel ashamed, then do whatever you like.”
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