The UN expert on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories on Monday resigned from his post, complaining that Israel had never granted him access to areas he is meant to monitor, AFP reported.

“The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Makarim Wibisono, today submitted his resignation to the President of the Human Rights Council, effective as of 31 March 2016,” a UN statement said.

Wibisono, who took up the independent role in June 2014, “expressed deep regret that, throughout his mandate, Israel failed to grant him access to the Occupied Palestinian Territory”, the statement quoted by AFP said.

“Unfortunately, my efforts to help improve the lives of Palestinian victims of violations under the Israeli occupation have been frustrated every step of the way,” Wibisono charged in the statement.

The Indonesian diplomat said he had been assured before taking up the position that he would have access to Palestinian Authority (PA) territories.

“I took up this mandate with the understanding that Israel would grant me access, as an impartial and objective observer,” he said, but added repeated requests for access were unsuccessful.

“With no reply from Israel to my latest request, in October 2015, to have access by the end of 2015, it is with deep regret that I accept the premise upon which I took up the mandate, which is to have direct access to the victims in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, will not be fulfilled,” he said, according to AFP.

By contrast, he said, the Palestinian government had “cooperated fully” with his mandate.

Wibisono replaced Richard Falk as the UN’s investigator of Israel last year. Falk was known for his anti-Israel stance and, before stepping down, accused Israel of a campaign of ethnic cleansing and apartheid policies against Palestinian Arabs.

But Wibisono is not much different than Falk, with the UN Watch NGO having revealed before his appointment that, in addition to representing Indonesia which rejects any official diplomatic relations with Israel, Wibisono went to Gaza in 2010 to meet with the leader of the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist organization.

Wibisono has also demonstrated a disconcerting pattern and practice of “one-sided and inflammatory” statements.

For example, he has accused Israel of “unconscionable use of force against the Palestinians,” “untenable acts of aggression,” and of having a “policy of retribution against the entire Palestinian nation.”

Israel’s foreign ministry reacted to Wibisono’s stepping down on Monday, saying his mandate was such that “he could not give an unbiased view”.

“From the Israeli perspective the dice were loaded from the first day,” ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon told AFP.

“The mandate of the rapporteur was written so that it could not do its work in an objective and fair manner, with all the attention directed on the Palestinian side, on the Palestinian narrative and ignoring abuses against Israeli civilians,” he added.

Israel argues that the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), to which Wibisono reports, is concluding an investigation into the July 2014 war in Gaza that was established in a resolution with wording making clear it viewed Israel as guilty of violations as a foregone conclusion.

That bias was further cemented in the appointment of Canadian lawyer William Schabas to head the probe. Schabas has a long history of anti-Israel invective, and stepped down from the investigation after it was revealed he had done contract work with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Meanwhile, in a separate statement on Monday, the Israeli foreign ministry challenged the UNHRC’s conduct and the “content of its resolutions”.

“The Palestinians and their supporters in the Council enjoy an automatic majority leading to a one-sided and discriminatory performance of the Council and its various mechanisms,” the statement said, adding that “as long as this state of affairs persists, Israel’s attitude will reflect it”.

Wibisono, noted AFP, harshly criticized the 2014 Gaza war, warning the “ferocity of destruction and high proportion of civilian lives lost in Gaza cast serious doubts over Israel’s adherence to international humanitarian law”.

And in November, Wibisono accused the Israeli security forces of using excessive force against the Palestinians and said they may have carried out summary executions as they sought to crack down on a wave of lone-wolf attacks with knives, guns and cars.