Israel ambassador to UN: General Assembly chief is an Israel hater
By mailto:secretary@haaretz.co.il Shlomo Shamir
September 25, 2008
Haaretz
Original Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1024552.html


Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev on Thursday called the President of the UN General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann an Israel hater for having hugged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a vocal enemy of Israel. 

Brockmann has incurred the wrath of the Israeli delegation before, when in his first speech as the president of the international body he said that the greatest case failure of the United Nations is the lack of a Palestinian state.

Shalev voiced her outrage in an interview on Thursday, condemning Brockmann's gesture at the end of Ahmadinejad's address at the opening of the 63rd General Assembly on Tuesday, which was aggressive and anti-Israel. 

Brockmann, a 75-year-old Catholic priest, was scheduled to dine alongside Ahmadinejad in a meal marking the end the Ramadan fast, organized by five American religious groups. 

The director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Abraham H. Foxman, called the event a perversion of the search for peace and an appalling betrayal of religious values. Foxman has also asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to publicly condemn the anti-Semitic content of the Iranian leader's address.