Resignation of UN official 'long overdue — Israel's UN Ambassador
- by Sandy Lane
- in Science
- — Mar 20, 2017
"Anti-Israel activists do not belong in the United Nations".
Reading out her resignation letter at a press conference in Beirut, Khalaf said: "I do not find it surprising that such member states, who now have governments with little regard for global norms and values of human rights, will resort to intimidation when they find it hard to defend their unlawful policies and practices".
Khalaf, a Jordanian who headed the Beirut-based ESCWA, said she couldn't accept being subjected to pressure from Guterres to withdraw the report.
The commission published a report on Wednesday (15 March) branding Israel an "apartheid state" in what is the first time a United Nations body had levelled racism charges against the country.
Guterres had asked the commission to remove the report from its website, a United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, adding that the report was published without consultation with the United Nations secretariat. "This is about the secretary-general having the authority to manage the organization in a way that is done effectively and can deliver on its goals".
A Palestinian rights activist, Omar Barghouti, described the report as potentially the "first beam of light that ushers the dawn of sanctions against" Israel.
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The landmark report's endorsement of boycotts, economic sanctions and other grassroots initiatives comes at a moment when Israel is desperately attempting to criminalize and suppress global support for Palestinian rights.
"The secretary-general can not accept that an under-secretary general or any other senior United Nations official that reports to him would authorize the publication under the U.N.name, under the United Nations logo, without consulting the competent departments and even himself", he said.
Mahmoud Nawajaa of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, said Palestinians are "deeply grateful" to Khalaf "who preferred to resign in dignity than to surrender her principles to US-Israeli bullying".
US UN envoy Nikki Haley praised Guterres for killing the report.
At least one additional report commissioned by ESCWA, attempting to create an "innovative" and "scientific" methodology for estimated the cost of Israel's 50-year control of the territories, is still in the works, with the aim of demanding billions in reparations for Palestinians.
"I asked him to rethink his decision, he insisted, so I submitted my resignation from the United Nations".
