UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon denied on Wednesday there is any bias in the UN against Israel.
At a press "encounter" at the UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday, a reporter for Israel Radio pressed Ban about his comments last Friday while meeting with students at the UN headquarters in Jerusalem.
Ban simply said, "I don't think there is discrimination against Israel at the United Nations."
He continued, "The Israeli government maybe raised this issue that there's some bias against Israel, but Israel is one of the 193 member states. Thus, Israel should have equal rights and opportunities without having any bias, any discrimination. That's a fundamental principle of the United Nations charter. And thus, Israel should be fully given such rights."
The Secretary-General was in Israel on Friday where he met with students at the UN headquarters in Jerusalem, and reportedly did admit to these students that there is bias against Israel in the UN.
“Unfortunately because of the conflict, Israel has been weighed down by criticism and suffered from bias – sometimes even discrimination,” Ban said at the time, according to several media sources.
On Monday in New York, Ban retracted these comments, and emphasized that "incitement against any group of people, any religion or tradition…is unacceptable."
At the same press event, Ban also called the renewed Israeli-Palestinian talks a "fresh opportunity for real progress," and called on leaders from both sides to "seize this historic opportunity."
August 19th is the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the Baghdad UN Headquarters, an attack that killed 22 people, including the then-head of the UN High Commission on Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello. The UN marks the day as World Humanitarian Day.
Navi Pillay, the current head of the UNHCR paid tribute to her predecessor in her remarks to the UN Security Council during their meeting on Monday morning to discuss the protection of civilians in armed conflict, an item that has been ongoing on the Security Council's agenda. Speaking via video conference from Geneva, Pillay took the opportunity to express her enthusiasm for the renewed peace talks between Israeli and Palestinians, and said that "the talks can only achieve tangible results if the protection of human rights is placed at the center."
She added, "The illegal blockade of Gaza that places restrictions on the enjoyment of fundamental human rights must be lifted."