-Caveat Lector-
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
file=/chronicle/archive/2002/12/11/MN169421.DTL
""They have also charged the organization with hypocrisy by giving Syria a seat on the
Security Council despite its poor human rights record and place on the State
Department's
list of host countries for terror groups.""
>>>This is like saying, "Them peoples don't need to go to school 'cause they're too
ignorant! And they take stuff. And they talk and live differently. And they
shouldn't have
representation." A<>E<>R <<<
www.sfgate.com Return to regular view
Tensions between Israel, U.N. near boiling point
Danielle Haas, Chronicle Foreign Service
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
�2002 San Francisco Chronicle.
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
file=/chronicle/archive/2002/12/11/MN169421.DTL
Jerusalem -- There has been little love lost between the United Nations and Israel
over the
decades.
U.N. resolutions may have paved the way for the creation of the Jewish state in 1948,
but
relations have long been troubled both at a political level and operationally on the
ground.
The deaths in recent days of three U.N. employees during Israeli military operations
have
sunk those ties to a new nadir.
"The situation, at least on the ground, is pretty bad. A lot of people in the U.N. are
quite
troubled by Israeli actions," said one regional diplomatic source.
Israeli officials charge that Palestinian U.N. employees are providing cover for
militants and
even take part in terror activities by working for the U.N. by day and as terrorists
by night.
"Some U.N. workers are involved in terror," said Raanan Gissin, an aide to Prime
Minister
Ariel Sharon. "They are aiding and abetting it, too, by allowing (militants) to
operate in the
(refugee) camps."
U.N. officials deny that any employees in the West Bank and Gaza are connected to
extremists, although Hamas identified a U.N. teacher who was killed during an Israeli
raid in
Gaza on Friday as a member of that militant group.
The round of accusations was touched off by the death last month of Iain Hook, a Briton
working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), during a gunfight
between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanded that Israel conduct a "rigorous
investigation .
. . and hold accountable those responsible." And more than 60 U.N. relief workers
issued an
unprecedented petition condemning the army in the "strongest possible terms for this
wanton act against an unarmed man."
Israel has since released a message that Hook left on an officer's phone minutes
before he
died in which he said he was trying to prevent armed Palestinians from entering the
UNRWA compound in Jenin. It charged the Palestinians with "the cynical use of the
civilian
population and relief organization buildings" as a cover for terrorist activities.
"Palestinians are trying to escalate the situation," said Gissin, "and one way to
create
friction is to try to do it via the U.N."
Angry U.N. officials say there were no gunmen inside the building.
"The accounts that Israeli officials have given regarding the death of Iain Hook run
counter
to reports from U.N. officials," said Mark Dennis, an aide to the world body's special
representative in the region, Terje Roed Larsen.
UNRWA Commissioner General Peter Hansen was less circumspect, referring to the deaths
of people working for a humanitarian agency as "completely unacceptable."
The ill feeling resurfaced just days later when the U.N.-affiliated World Food Program
blamed Israeli soldiers for blowing up a Gaza warehouse that stored food for 40,000
destitute Palestinians. The military said the upper floors were used for terrorist
activity.
Then on Friday, an Israeli operation against militants in a Gaza camp killed 10
Palestinians,
including two UNRWA workers, triggering new U.N. charges of the "indiscriminate use of
heavy firepower."
UNRWA was established in 1949 to carry out relief programs for Palestinian refugees who
fled or were made homeless in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war until a political solution was
found.
Fifty-three years later, there is no settlement and the agency continues to provide
education, health, relief and social services to more than 3.7 million registered
refugees in
the Middle East. Among them are more than 1.5 million in the West Bank and Gaza, the
majority of whom live in around 27 camps served by 260 UNRWA schools and 50 health
care facilities.
"UNRWA is at the point of sharpest conflict right now. But it reflects a broader
problem of
crisis of confidence that Israel has with the U.N., which it sees as having been co-
opted by
Palestinians, as corrupt and lacking in professionalism," said Gerald Steinberg, an
analyst at
Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan University.
Posters of suicide bombers have appeared in the walls of UNRWA schools and buildings,
including the U.N. girls school in Jenin. "When they kill a martyr, we will kill 100
Jews,"
reads graffiti scrawled by Hamas on the wall of a nearby U.N. complex.
"UNRWA should raise their voices and do something about these terrorists," said Gissin.
"But many (officials) are collaborating, and others are intimidated so they don't say a
word."
UNRWA not only rejects such allegations but levels charges of its own against the
Israeli
army, which it says has stymied its crucial work of alleviating Palestinian suffering
by firing
on schools, ambulances and clinics.
"Israel needs us to be here . . . but they don't always respect what we are doing," one
official said.
Pressure is mounting from some Jewish groups and U.S. congressmen for UNRWA to clamp
down on militancy in the camps.
Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., said earlier this year that the United States, which
contributes
around one-third of UNRWA's annual $310 million budget, should freeze payments if
terror
continues. The World Jewish Congress demands that UNRWA staff act to cease providing a
"shield for terrorism."
Diplomatic sources say the sides are talking to try to smooth over the problems. But
there
may have to be structural changes before trust can return.
"We may see top UNRWA officials being declared persona non grata (by Israel), which
would force them to leave," Steinberg speculated. "But one thing's clear: Relations
are bad
and only getting worse at every turn in the road."
The UNRWA problems are just the tip of the iceberg.
Israel has long viewed U.N. members, who only in 1991 repealed a resolution equating
Zionism with racism, as favoring Arab nations by frequently adopting anti-Israel
motions.
Last year, the animosity peaked when it was revealed that Indian U.N. peacekeepers in
Lebanon had shot a videotape related to the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers, but
had not
initially passed on the information to the Israelis.
The U.N. Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa, also prompted a storm of protest
from the United States and Jewish groups, who said Arab- backed anti-Israel resolutions
unfairly singled out Israel for criticism.
They have also charged the organization with hypocrisy by giving Syria a seat on the
Security Council despite its poor human rights record and place on the State
Department's
list of host countries for terror groups.
Palestinians are also critical of the United Nations -- for not being harsh enough on
Israel.
They say the organization does little to ensure implementation of resolutions calling
for
Israel's withdrawal from the land it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat: "Israel is the only country on earth to
get its
birth certificate from the United Nations, which makes them feel they have higher
protection, and (President) Bush is protecting them. "
�2002 San Francisco Chronicle. Page A - 12
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