The spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday (March 15) said a U.N. agency report published the same day accusing Israel of imposing an apartheid regime of racial discrimination on the Palestinian people “does not reflect the views of the secretary-general.”
The report commissioned by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) concluded “Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole.” The accusation—often directed at Israel by its critics—is fiercely rejected by the Jewish state.
U.N. Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf said the report was the “first of its type” from a U.N. body that “clearly and frankly concludes that Israeli is a racist state that has established an apartheid system that persecutes the Palestinian people.”
Israeli officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(REUTERS)
