image U.N. Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf speaks during a news conference announcing her resignation from the United Nations in Beirut, Lebanon, March 17, 2017. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi - RTX31IFV

UN’s ESCWA chief resigns after UNSG Guterres demands she renounce anti-Israel document

The head of the United Nation’s West Asia Commission, Under-Secretary General Rima Khalaf, who published a report last week that accused Israel of imposing an “apartheid regime” on the Palestinians, announced her resignation the weekend, after UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres demanded that she renounce the anti-Israel document. 

“It was to be expected that Israel and its allies would put enormous pressure on the United Nations Secretary General to renounce the report, and the United Secretary General gave me his instructions to renounce it.” / “I asked him (United Nations Secretary General) to review his stance on this but he insisted on it, so I submitted my resignation from the United Nations to him,” said Khalaf. 

The Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, which comprises 18 Arab states, published the report on Wednesday last week, after which it boasted the fact that a UN body had clearly charged Israel with apartheid, just a few hours before Secretary General Guterres insisted on the withdrawal of the report that he emphasized “did not reflect the position of the United Nations.” 

The Secretary-General’s spokesman noted that the resignation of Khalaf was accepted, while rejecting reports on pressure on the Secretary General to do so by the Trump Administration that ultimately lead to the UN’s decision to withdraw the report. 

“Yes, we asked for the report to be taken down for the website. I think as we’ve said clearly in the last couple of days, the report, no one at headquarters was consulted. None of the relevant departments were consulted. We asked for it to be taken down,” said Stephane Dujarric, UN Spokesman for Secretary General Guterres.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon reacted to the resignation of Under-Secretary General Khalaf, stressing that the “Secretary General’s decision – to demand the withdrawal of the anti-Israel report and accept her resignation – is an important step in ending the bias against Israel at the UN.” Danon added that “Anti-Israel activists do not belong in the UN,” and emphasized that it was “time to put an end to practice, in which UN officials use their position to advance their anti-Israel agenda.” The Israeli Ambassador to the world body accused the outgoing under-secretary of working over the years to harm Israel and advocate for the BDS movement, while declaring that “her removal from the United Nations is long overdue.”