The UNESCWA headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – After the United Nations-affiliated Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) last month released a controversial report describing Israel as an “apartheid regime,” the same UN agency is set to release a new report equating the Israeli “occupation” with slavery in the US.

ESCWA’s Beirut-based council is comprised of 18 Arab members. The agency’s recent “apartheid” report — authored by Richard Falk, a discredited former UN special rapporteur for human rights with a record of vehemently anti-Israel rhetoric — was rejected by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who forced its withdrawal.

According to an ESCWA resolution passed in December 2016, the new slavery-themed anti-Israel report seeks to establish “premises and approach for calculating the cumulative cost of the occupation.”

Although it has yet to be clarified when the latest anti-Israel report will be published, Israeli media have reported it may symbolically be released in June on the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War. The UN Conference on Trade and Development is set to collaborate with ESCWA on the report.