Israel irked by UN's tacit Nazi/Israel remark

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Israel's ambassador is calling on the United Nations chief to suspend a U.N. agency head for tacitly comparing the Jewish state to Nazi Germany.

Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor is calling for the suspension of Rima Khalaf, the head of the Arab-oriented Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia.

She did not explicitly name Nazi Germany. But in a speech in late February Khalaf referred to "Israel's adamancy that it is a Jewish State, which violates the rights of both the Muslim and Christian indigenous populations and revives the concept of state ethnic and religious purity, which caused egregious human suffering during the 20th century."

The Holocaust would be one obvious reference, though there were many ethnic and religious purges, massacres and wars in the 20th century.