Dorthy Shea United States Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, 2024-2025 Current: Retired Succeeding Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the interim U.S. ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea publicly denied the genocide in Gaza and foiled ceasefire deals. In a June 4, 2025 vote at the UN Security Council, Shea vetoed a resolution demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The draft resolution also would have Israel lift restrictions on aid entry and distribution. Shea condemned the resolution as “unacceptable,” elaborating: “The United States has been clear [that] we would not support any measure that fails to condemn Hamas and does not call for Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza.” Later that year, in July 2025, Shea dismissed the term “genocide” to refer to Israel’s crimes in Gaza as “propaganda.” In front of the UN Security Council, Shea explained that genocide accusations against Israel were not only “politically motivated and categorically false,” but were also “part of a deliberate, cynical propaganda campaign as Hamas attempts to win symbolic victories to compensate for total defeat in war.”

Black and white photo of a woman with medium-length hair, wearing earrings, a pearl necklace, and a blazer, speaking or reading at a podium.

Dorothy Shea

United States Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, 2024-2025

Current: Retired

Succeeding Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the interim U.S. ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea publicly denied the genocide in Gaza and foiled ceasefire deals.

Shea’s support for the Gaza genocide even extended into the Trump administration. In a June 4, 2025 vote at the UN Security Council, while serving as President Trump’s United States Chargé d'Affaires to the United Nations, Shea vetoed a resolution demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The draft resolution also would have required Israel to lift restrictions on aid entry and distribution. Shea condemned the resolution as “unacceptable,” elaborating, “The United States has been clear [that] we would not support any measure that fails to condemn Hamas and does not call for Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza.”

Later that year, in August 2025, Shea dismissed the term “genocide” to refer to Israel’s crimes in Gaza as “propaganda.” In front of the UN Security Council, Shea explained that genocide accusations against Israel were not only “politically motivated and categorically false,” but were also “part of a deliberate, cynical propaganda campaign as Hamas attempts to win symbolic victories to compensate for total defeat in war.”

Shea added, “The United States refutes these allegations entirely.” At this point, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, and numerous other organizations and governments had concluded that Israel was committing a genocide. Also at this point, at least 55,380 people in Gaza had been killed by Israel.