Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations. Photo: WEF.

JNS.org – In a rare admission, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that there is U.N. bias against Israel.

Speaking to university students at the U.N. Headquarters in Jerusalem, Ban stated that Israel, as a U.N. member, should get the same treatment as other nations. “Unfortunately, because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel has been weighed down by criticism and suffered from bias and sometimes even discrimination,” he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Ban on Friday. The two discussed regional concerns, and Netanyahu raised the issue of U.N.-funded schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that promote incitement against Jews and Israel. Netanyahu said that the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the Palestinian “refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any boundary.”

Historically, official U.N. statements and resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have frequently criticized Israel, rather than taking the approach of Ban’s comments on Friday.