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Resources updated Wednesday, June 14, 2017

June 14, 2017

UN Headquarters, New York

The Blindness of the United Nations Article

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (File photo)

A newly released report issued by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accuses Israel of damaging Palestinian social and economic conditions, while minimizing Israeli security concerns and whitewashing Palestinian responsibility for their own conditions. The report was drafted by the infamous Lebanon-based Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), a UN commission which was recently forced to withdraw a report accusing Israel of apartheid and whose former head resigned in wake of the scandal. However, the Secretary-General had no problem putting his name on the new report, which maintains ESCWA's anti-Israel bias.

The report includes a litany of complaints and allegations against Israel:

  • The report accuses Israeli soldiers who defend against Palestinian stabbing, shooting, and car ramming attacks of committing "extrajudicial executions": "8. Serious concerns remain about the use of force and unlawful killings by Israeli security forces, including some cases which may have amounted to extrajudicial executions"
  • The report accuses Israel of "collective punishment": "10. During the reporting period, Israel intensified punitive demolitions of Palestinian family homes, a measure that may amount to collective punishment"
  • It criticizes archaeological digs to uncover the history of the Jewish people in the Holy Land over thousands of years as "entrenching" Israeli presence in the West Bank: "25. Archaeological excavations, the creation of national parks and the development of tourist activities are other methods employed by Israel to entrench its presence in the West Bank"
  • The report describes Jewish housing in disputed territories as "the root of a broad spectrum of human rights violations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem"
  • It criticizes Israel for preventing potential terrorists from crossing into Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza: "40. When rejecting requests by Palestinians from Gaza for permits to enter Israel, Israeli authorities tend to provide only general explanations, usually claiming that the request falls outside the criteria defined in the closure policy or that it was denied on security grounds."
  • It criticizes Israeli security precautions in the wake of terror attacks: "48. As noted in previous reports of the Secretary-General, following attacks against Israelis, the Israeli authorities have often employed measures that may amount to a collective penalty, which affect the members of the family or the community of the attackers or alleged attackers."
  • The report repeats "official Palestinian sources" that Israel is dumping hazardous waste in Palestinian areas: "61. Official Palestinian sources have claimed that practices by Israeli authorities and settlers, including the illegal transfer of hazardous waste to the West Bank and the allocation of parts of the Jordan Valley to an Israeli dumpsite devoted to industrial waste, have gravely damaged Palestinian agricultural land, health, animals and biodiversity."
  • The report accuses Israel of "grave violations" regarding Palestinian children's education - while failing to note that Palestinian schools teach hate and incitement to violence: "73. In 2016, education-related grave violations continued to restrict the right of children to access education safely in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem."
  • The report contains an entire section criticizing Israel for its activities on the "Occupied Syrian Golan" - while Assad forces and Islamic State terrorists massacre Syrian civilians in "unoccupied" Syria
  • The report selectively uses quotation marks to cast doubt on Israel's determinations of legality of Bedouin housing: "Bedouin communities in Area C are also at high risk of displacement owing to the policy of demolition of structures that Israel deems as 'illegal'"
  • In contrast, claims that Israel has been "deemed" to discriminate in planning policies are included without any quotation marks, and are attributed only to a non-governmental organization Bimkom: "Since 1967, the Israeli authorities have implemented what have been deemed discriminatory planning policies with regard to Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem."
  • The report even blames Israel for a lack of fish around Gaza: "60. Israeli-imposed restrictions on fishing areas off Gaza have resulted in the deterioration of the Strip's fishing sector. The shrinking fishing zone has led to overfishing in a small area, resulting in a decreased fish population and depletion of their breeding grounds."
  • The report's conclusion blames only Israel and the "occupation" for the social and economic condition of Palestinians - ignoring the responsibility of the repressive and corrupt Palestinian Authority and Hamas regimes for their own people: "89. Fifty years of occupation of Palestinian and Syrian lands have created severe limitations on social and economic development in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan. The impact of Israeli policies and practices on the Palestinian people, society and economy, in particular, is multilayered and has accumulated over the decades of occupation."
  • The conclusion also calls only for "justice" for Palestinians and Syrians under "occupation" - not for Israelis: "91. Adherence to international law is imperative, ensuring that no party enjoys impunity and securing justice and peace for all the peoples in the region, including the Palestinian and Syrian populations under occupation."

    UN Secretary-General Produces Another UN Report Condemning Israel and Minimizing Palestinian Terror Development

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon (File photo)

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon Blasts 'One-Sided' UN Human Rights Council Report Article

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the new director general of the World Health Organization, the top health agency of the United Nations

"The World Health Organization (WHO), the troubled United Nations health agency, has just elected a controversial new director-general. The choice should disturb taxpayers, members of Congress, and the Trump administration.

We'll soon hear condemnation of the administration's plan for steep cuts in funding of international organizations, as proposed by the White House's budget blueprint. Cuts to WHO will draw dire warnings about global pandemics and cries for America to do more.

Global public health is, indeed, critical to American interests at home and abroad, and the U.S. government is the largest contributor to WHO's approximately $2 billion budget. However, like other U.N. subsidiaries, WHO is plagued by persistent wasteful spending, utter disregard for transparency, pervasive incompetence, and failure to adhere to even basic democratic standards. None of these problems are new, but they are worsening, and the latest developments underscore the need for tough love in the form of responsible stewardship of our largesse.

The May 23 election of Ethiopian politician Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to head WHO is the latest evidence that reform won't come from WHO itself. Dr. Tedros, as he likes to be called (he has a Ph.D. in community health), is a leader of Ethiopia's brutal minority party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, a wing of the ruling Marxist-rooted Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front. He served the violently repressive regime as minister of foreign affairs from 2012 to 2016, after a stint as health minister...

The AP obtained documents showing that WHO 'routinely has spent about $200 million a year on travel expenses, more than what it doles out to fight some of the biggest problems in public health, including AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.'..."

Stop Funding the U.N.'s Health Agency Until It Cleans Up Its Act Article