Watchdog group NGO Monitor issued a statement last week, calling for the immediate resignation of Raquel Rolnik, the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, due to her use of an anti-Semitic slur, “Judaization,” to describe Israeli government housing policy in the Negev, Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria.

“‘Judaization’ is an anti-Jewish racist term which suggests that the presence of Jews is alien and unacceptable,” Anne Herzberg, legal advisor for NGO Monitor, claimed.

“This immoral rhetoric is part of the broader delegitimization campaign that is counterproductive to fostering peace in the region. As with the false ‘apartheid’ analogy, it is invoked with the same goal to demonize. It is the latest manifestation of the 1975 UN ‘Zionism is racism’ resolution and the 2001 Durban Conference NGO Forum declaration,” Herzberg said.

Article 4 of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination “condemn[s] all propaganda and all organizations which are based on ideas or theories of superiority of one race or group of persons of one colour or ethnic origin, or which attempt to justify or promote racial hatred and discrimination in any form…”

“It is immoral for human rights organizations and UN officials to use phrases such as ‘Judaization,’ which explicitly endorses ethnically-based exclusion,” the NGO Monitor explained.

“The term Judaization is immoral and employed for anti-Semitic goals; we expect that it would not be invoked by a UN Special Rapporteur claiming to operate with a human rights framework,” Herzberg affirmed. “Raquel Rolnik’s use of it makes peace more difficult to achieve, and in light of this she should resign immediately.”