The United Nations (UN) said it has initiated an investigation into a possible case of sexual misconduct by a staff member after a video that is being widely circulated on social media shows a woman straddling a man in a vehicle with UN markings in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
The 18-second video clip, filmed at night from a building overlooking a busy road, appears to show a woman dressed in red engaged in the act with a man wearing casual clothing in the back seat of a Toyota 4X4 vehicle before driving out of view. Another man can be seen seated in the front passenger seat.
By identifying the landmarks and comparing videos and images of the street, The New Humanitarian, a non-profit news agency, confirmed that the video was taken on HaYarkon street in Tel Aviv. According to a Twitter user who shared the footage, the man in the back seat is a UN delegation member and the woman is a sex worker that he allegedly picked up off the road to have sex with in the vehicle.
Sexual Misconduct Investigation
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that the world body was "shocked and deeply disturbed by what is seen on this video." "The behaviour seen in it is abhorrent and goes against everything we stand for and have been working to achieve in terms of fighting sexual misconduct by UN staff," he said.
Dujarric added that the UN's Office of Internal Oversight (OIOS) is already investigating the alleged incident and that the identification of the individuals in the video is close to being completed. The OIOS is an independent body that probes misconduct, fraud and corruption within the UN.
Although the video footage is shaky, the number plate of the vehicle appears to belong to UNTSO, which stands for the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation, a UN peacekeeping body originally formed in May 1948 to monitor a ceasefire around the time of the establishment of the state of Israel.
The UN has strict rules about sexual abuse and exploitation, including a ban on paying for sex, but has struggled with allegations of sexual misconduct by its staff members and peacekeepers. In 2019, the UN investigated 175 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by its own staff and soldiers serving in its peacekeeping operations, 16 of which it concluded were "substantiated".
