JERUSALEM: A senior Palestinian official on Wednesday blasted US President Donald Trump’s UN envoy, accusing her of carrying out a “crusade” against the Palestinian people.
Hanan Ashrawi, an senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said Nikki Haley was leading a “one-woman crusade... against Palestine and the Palestinian people individually and collectively.”
“Through an obsessive and targeted campaign of intimidation and threats, Miss Haley’s crusade does not miss an opportunity to put pressure on anyone that seeks to challenge Israeli impunity,” she added.
Ashrawi said Haley was echoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Palestinian officials have privately expressed increasing alarm at the Trump administration’s pro-Israel stance as the US president seeks to restart peace negotiations.
However until Wednesday they had publicly refrained from criticizing senior US officials.
Haley visited Israel and the Palestinian territories in June.
Ashrawi said Haley was “compounding the victimization of the Palestinian people and browbeating the institutions that are meant to defend their rights.”
Since being nominated by Trump after his November victory, Haley has consistently accused the UN of systematic bias against Israel.
The US vetoed the appointment of a former Palestinian prime minister as UN envoy to Libya, while Haley has called on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to intervene to block a forthcoming vote on the city of Hebron, which declares the West Bank city under threat.
Ashrawi said Haley was undermining the chances of peace by “pursuing her own agenda consistent with her anti-Palestinian obsession and as an apologist for Israel.”