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

JNS.org – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon backtracked on an earlier admission that the organization that he heads is biased against Israel.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Ban was asked by an Israel Radio reporter regarding his statements Friday about Israel in the U.N. The secretary-general at first spoke about the claims of incitement against Israel in U.N.-funded camps, saying they would be investigated and that “incitement against any group of people or any religion or tradition and disrespect against any traditions and region and people, ethnic group is unacceptable.”

When pressed about his statements regarding U.N. discrimination against Israel, Ban answered, “No, I don’t think there is discrimination against Israel at the United Nations. The Israeli government in fact, you know, raised this issue that [there is] 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 statements directly contrast with what Ban said on Friday, when he was quoted telling university students at the U.N. Headquarters in Jerusalem that, “Unfortunately, because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel has been weighed down by criticism and suffered from bias and sometimes even discrimination.”