Outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has officially recognized for the first time that the UN has been disproportionately biased against Israel.

“Decades of political maneuverings have created a disproportionate volume of resolutions, reports and conferences criticizing Israel,” he declared in his last address to the UN Security Council in New York.

“In many cases, rather than helping the Palestinian cause, this reality has hampered the ability of the UN to fulfill its role effectively,” Ban added.

“The right of the Jewish people to have a state does not negate the right of the Palestinian people to statehood,” Ban added. “At the same time, Israel must realize that the reality, in which a democratic state governed by the rule of law keeps the Palestinian people under military occupation, will continue to generate criticism and calls for accountability.”

He added that “the expanding Israeli settlement enterprise and an ever-more-entrenched status quo is preventing Palestinian development and locking in Gaza,” and that “settlements eat away at the land meant for a future Palestinian state.”

“Progress in this area, however, will be difficult unless the Palestinian authorities take brave and concrete steps to address incitement and violence,” he added.

Ban also slammed Hamas, the islamist movement in the Gaza Strip for its “anti-Semitic charter that aspires to the obliteration of Israel. Hamas must, once and for all, renounce the use of violence and recognize the right of Israel to exist alongside a Palestinian state, in accordance with all relevant Security Council resolutions and previous agreements between the parties.”

In a reaction to Ban’s comments, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said : “The secretary-general admitted the clear truth, the UN’s hypocrisy towards Israel has broken records over the past decade.”

“During this time the UN passed 223 resolutions condemning Israel while only eight resolutions condemning the Syrian regime as it has massacred its citizens over the past six years. This is absurd,’’ he added.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder also welcomed Ban Ki-Moon’s “long-awaited and impactful” recognition of the UN’s ongoing disproportionate stance on Israel and his demand that Hamas once and for all renounce the use of violence and recognize the right of Israel to exist.

However, Lauder added that it had “been incumbent” upon Ban to make such remarks over the course of his near 10-year term, and to voice opposition to the anti-Israel resolutions that have abounded.

“In the nearly 10 years that he has been in office, Ban Ki-moon has vigilantly supported a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, a shared sentiment that we encourage and respect. But his tenure has been replete with some of the most shocking and anti-Israel resolutions of our time, including repeated Human Rights Council decisions singling out Israel for crimes against humanity, while ignoring the fate of nationals in other parts of the world whose lives are constantly at risk due to the horror and terror of extremists in their midst, as well as UNESCO decisions that blatantly and aggressively deny Israel of its historic Jewish ties to Jerusalem and accuse Israel of aggression in its sovereign capacity. We believe that criticism of Israel can be sounded when due, but many of the resolutions of the last few years have been so clearly biased and damaging to Israel.’’