Haley: UN one of ‘world’s foremost centers of hostility towards Israel’

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.) Nikki Haley slammed the organization’s past treatment of Israel on Friday in her defense of President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

“Over many years the United Nations has outrageously been of the world’s foremost centers of hostility towards Israel,” Haley said, according to CNN, during an emergency Security Council meeting called in response to Trump’s declaration this week.

“The U.N. has done much more damage to the prospects of Middle East peace than to advance them. We will not be a party to that,” she continued. 

Global experts say Trump’s move could do significant damage to peace talks with the Palestinians, who have long considered east Jerusalem the site of a future capital in a two-state solution.

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“The U.S. no longer stands by when Israel is unfairly attacked in the United Nations,” Haley said.

“And the United States will not be lectured to by countries that lack any credibility when it comes to treating both Israelis and Palestinians fairly.”

Haley’s comments come two days after Trump announced the U.S. would officially recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.  

Trump’s move has sparked backlash from members of the international community, which largely recognizes Tel Aviv as the country’s capital. 

Haley said on Wednesday that the president would not decide who controls the eastern portion of the city. 

“That’s for the two sides to decide,” Haley said. “That’s not for the United States to decide.”

East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, was not part of the original lines drawn for Israel in 1949.

Last year, the administration of then-President Obama broke with years of U.S. policy by not vetoing a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory. The condemnation measure, which passed 14-0, drew swift backlash from Republicans including Trump.