26/11/2008 The UN General Assembly president sparked Jerusalem's ire after calling for international boycott on Israel Israel filed a formal complaint with the United Nations on Tuesday over statements made by UN General Assembly President, Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, who called for an international boycott of Israel after accusing it of being an apartheid regime. D'Escoto went on to decry the 'Our Greatest Failure' UN: 'It has been 60 years since some 800,000 Palestinians were driven out of their homes becoming refugees and an uprooted and marginalized people,' Father D'Escoto said, adding that the fact that Palestinians still have no state represents UN's 'greatest failure' The United Nations is currently marking its annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Over the course of two days the General Assembly will host a series of anti-Israel venues, including exhibits on Palestinian suffering and films comparing Israel to the Nazi regime. The pinnacle of the event will come in the form of a marathon of discussions, to culminate with the passing of six resolutions against Israel. These include ones calling for the right of return of the Palestinians to their homeland. In his address on Monday d'Escoto said: "Although different, what is being done against the Palestinian people seems to me to be a version of the highest policy of apartheid." The General Assembly president called on international institutions to boycott Israel and sever its financial ties to the world, and for the imposing of sanctions against Jerusalem. Until last year Israel had usually chosen to abstain from taking part in the annual solidarity day. And so Tuesday saw Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriella Shalev take the podium and ask her colleagues how the day the UN voted on the establishment of the State of Israel had become a day of mourning and grief. Shalev slammed the UN as being disconnected from reality, calling it an organization "that does not represent or reflect what is truly happening. The real things happen outside the UN.