Israeli envoy and UN official clash at hearing on children in conflict

Diplomatic niceties broke down at the United Nations on Friday when Israel's ambassador and the U.N. secretary-general's special representative for children and armed conflict became embroiled in a furious shouting match at a public hearing.



At a meeting in New York to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Israeli envoy, Danny Danon, demanded the resignation of Pramila Patten, who produced a report that blacklisted Israel for such alleged abuses for the first time, accusing her of bias.



"You caved to the secretary-general's obsession with targeting Israel," Danon said, referring to U.N. chief Antonio Guterres.



Another U.N. official, Vanessa Frazier, Guterres' representative for children and armed conflict and compiler of a separate report that also blacklists Israel, interjected by shouting a point of order. She demanded that Danon refrain from "personal attacks" and added that she had "verified evidence."