(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) KUWAIT, May 23 (KUNA) -- Former executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) said the apartheid policy, systematically practiced by the Zionist entity against the Palestinian people, is tantamount to crime against humanity.
"There are more than 50 laws in Israel that discriminate between Jews and Palestinians whether Muslims or Christians," she said at a symposium organized by Kuwait Alumni Association (KAA) on "sectarian discrimination against the Palestinian people." "These laws are tailored to meet the needs of the Jewish residents and deprive the other citizens of their rights to housing and equal citizenship, and political rights," she said.
Khalaf resigned her post as ESCWA chief on March 17 after UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres asked her to withdraw a report concluding that Israel is "a racial state" and apartheid regime.
Referring to that report, she said it provides evidence that Israel is committing criminal and inhumane acts against segments of the society in the occupied territories in a systematic way.
"In the occupied city of Jerusalem, for example, the apartheid regime is stifling the Palestinian residents through confiscation of their land and denying them permits to rehabilitate their homes, and allowing the Jewish settlers to build new homes.
"The Israeli apartheid regime seeks to force a new fait accompli through changing the demographics of the area under the pretest of demographic harmony.
"This regime is the worst and most malignant since it persists in its policy implicitly in order to avoid strong reactions," she stressed.
Khalaf noted that Israel went far in its attempts to segregate and fragment the Palestinian society and the Arab community at large through lobbying for UN recognition of it as a Jewish state.
There are more than 4.5 million non-Jewish citizens in the occupied territories, so how could Israel be considered a Jewish state without ethnic cleansing and evicting the original citizens of their homes?, the former UN official wondered.
The Israeli policy is comparable to that of the so-called Islamic State in the sense that both practice the worst forms of persecution against others, and have vague borders and expansionist ambitions, she went on.
Dealing with the call for normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab countries, she said: "The Arab peoples are mainly against normalization. To the contrary, they consider the Palestine question the core of conflict in the Middle East." Israel is unlikely to change its apartheid policy. Therefore, it's illegal, immoral and inhumane for other states or entities to have normal relations with, or invest in an apartheid regime, Khalaf concluded. (end) nma.gb
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