Ban blasts Netanyahu over ethnic cleansing remarks

The call to halt settlement activity is not analogous to “ethnic cleansing,” United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday, as he attacked the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for making the comparison.

“I am disturbed by a recent statement by Israel’s prime minister portraying those who oppose settlement expansion as supporters of ethnic cleansing,” Ban told the UN Security Council in New York during a debate on the Middle East that included the Palestinian question.

“This is unacceptable and outrageous,” he said.