ROCHESTER (NEW YORK): A descendant of Mahatma Gandhi has resigned from a peace institute after drawing condemnation for comments he made in an online forum that Israel and Jews "are the biggest players" in a global culture of violence.

Arun Gandhi, the fifth grandson of the revered Indian pacifist, said on Friday that the board of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence had accepted his offer a day earlier to step down as president.

Gandhi co-founded the institute with his wife, Sunanda, at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1991 and relocated it to the University of Rochester campus in June, a few months after her death at age 74.

"My intention was to generate a healthy discussion on the proliferation of violence," Gandhi said in a statement. "Instead, unintentionally, my words have resulted in pain, anger, confusion and embarrassment. I deeply regret these consequences."

Source : PTI