Tag Archive for UN

| April 10, 2012
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Israeli officials see Syria falling into battle between al-Qaida, Iran

Israeli officials are also concerned about reports showing Syrian weapons falling into Hezbollah’s hands, though it is still unclear whether the Shi’ite organization has gotten hold of chemical weapons.

Israeli officials are very skeptical the Syrian government and opposition will stick to the cease-fire that UN envoy Kofi Annan hopes will take hold on Tuesday.

Funeral in Syria.

Funerals in Syria. Photo by: AP

Annan, a former UN general secretary, has been traveling to Syria for several weeks in an attempt to broker a truce between President Bashar Assad and opposition forces, after many months of unrest.

Human rights reports show that more than 100 civilians have been executed so far this year, and the opposition says more than 150 civilians – including 17 children – were killed on Monday alone.

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| April 8, 2012
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Israel Ranks 14th in World Happiness Poll

Israel ranks 14th in the United Nations’ World Happiness Report; Denmark, Finland, Norway and Netherlands top list; U.S. ranks 11th.

The report lists Denmark, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands as the world’s happiest countries, with the United States ranking at 11th place and the United Kingdom at 18th place.

The report aims to “review the state of happiness in the world today and show how the new science of happiness explains personal and national variations in happiness.”

The rankings, based on a “life evaluation score,” measure factors including health, job security, personal freedom and degree of political corruption. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags:
| March 26, 2012
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‘Israel to cut off UN Human Rights Council contact’

Senior official says Israel to try to convince other countries to follow suit; no decision punitive measures against PA.

 

The Foreign Ministry decided Monday to cut off all contacts with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), a senior diplomatic official said.

The move came following the decision by the council last Thursday to send a fact-finding mission to the West Bank to probe the impact of the settlements on Palestinian human rights.

From now on, the officials said, Israel’s ambassador to the UN organizations in Geneva will not appear before the council, answer any phone calls from the council, or cooperate with them in any way.

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| March 26, 2012
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UN panel urges Israel to shelve ‘racist’ Bedouin relocation plan

UN committee says Law for the Regulation of the Bedouin Settlement in the Negev is discriminatory and would legalize racist practices.

A United Nations committee has called on for the withdrawal of an Israeli draft law that would move 30,000 Bedouin living in the Negev to permanent, existing Bedouin communities.

According to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Law for the Regulation of the Bedouin Settlement in the Negev is discriminatory and would legalize racist practices.

The bill is based on the Prawer Report, which was approved by the cabinet in September. It calls for moving 30,000 Negev Bedouin to communities such as Rahat, Kseifa and Hura.
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Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| March 20, 2012
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UN PRESS RELEASE: Palestinian state-building at increased risk

PRESS RELEASE

19th March 2012

Palestinian state-building at increased risk

(Brussels) The Palestinian state-building achievement is at increased risk, resulting from increased financial pressure on the Palestinian Authority and the continued absence of a credible political horizon for a negotiated solution, the United Nations report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) has concluded.

The report states that in the last six months the Palestinian Authority (PA) has continued to realize progress in a range of different areas, including, for example, the capacity of the security forces in the West Bank and in the provision of basic services, and addressing the needs of the most vulnerable members of Palestinian society. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| March 19, 2012
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UN cancels Hamas official visit to Human Rights Council after Israeli complaint

A top Hamas official’s appearance before the UN’s Human Rights Council was canceled on Monday following an official complaint filed by Israel.

Israeli Ambassador Aharon Leshno-Yaar says he wrote to UN officials urging them to deny Ismail Al-Ashqar access to the UN’s European headquarters because of Hamas’ advocacy of violence against Israel.

Human Rights Council AP May 21, 2010.

A session of the Human Rights Council at the UN European headquarters in Geneva, May 31, 2010. - Photo by AP

Following the complaint the UN chief in Geneva barred Al-Ashqar from entering the Human Rights Council hall, and he was asked to leave the UN compound in Geneva. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: ,
| March 19, 2012
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UN: Settlers taking over Palestinian-owned springs

Report claims intimidation, violence being used to limit Palestinian access to W. Bank springs; IDF rejects claims.

 

Ein Hagvura natural spring in the West Bank - Photo by Sharon Udasin

Ein Hagvura natural spring in the West Bank - Photo by Sharon Udasin

Amid the sprawling olive groves that surround Ein Al Ariq – or Ein HaGvura – outside of Nablus, Jamal Daraghmeh recalled the days of the 1970s, when he and fellow community members used to come to the basin to collect water for their village drinking needs and livestock.

“We [now] have access only after coordination for the olive harvest, once a year,” Daraghmeh, the mayor of nearby village al Luban al Sharqiya, told reporters during a United Nations field tour of the area last week. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Jewish News | Tags: , , , , ,
| March 19, 2012
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Hamas Terrorist to Address UN Human Rights Council

Ismail al-Ashqar will speak to the UNHRC Monday, regarding Hamas terrorists in Israeli jails.

Senior Hamas official Ismail al-Ashqar will address the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday, an official statement said.

Al-Ashqar arrived in Switzerland on Sunday ahead of the appearance, which will focus on the issue of Hamas members being held in Israeli jails, the statement added.

UN Security Council

UN Security Council - Photo by Reuters

Blogger Elder of Zion noted that al-Ashqar has publicly called for Hamas to kidnap Israeli soldiers – an act that constitutes a war crime.

In another statement, al-Ashqar said that “Jerusalem cannot be liberated through negotiations or dialogue … resistance and Jihad is the only way to liberate Jerusalem from the dirt of the Zionist occupation.” Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| March 18, 2012
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Israel to UN: Fire worker over false Gaza Tweet

Ambassador Prosor says OCHA rep in Jerusalem must be dismissed for claiming photo she posted via Twitter was of Palestinian girl killed in IAF strike; Israel found girl was killed in car crash

The Israel Mission to the UN has formally requested that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) fire its national officer in Jerusalem, Khulood Badawi, due to her blatant anti-Israel activism, Fox News reported over the weekend.

Last week, the report said, Badawi used Twitter to send a picture of a bloodied child in her father’s arms with a caption: “Palestine is bleeding. Another child killed by Israel. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| March 16, 2012
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Israel: Fire UN Worker who Libeled IDF

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor, calls to fire a UN worker who wrongly claimed Israeli airstrikes killed a young girl in Gaza.

 

Israel has called on the United Nations to fire an employee who falsely accused the IDF of killing a young child in Gaza.

The employee, Kuhlood Badawi, posted a picture on Twitter of a young child in Gaza covered in blood, and wrote, “Palestine is bleeding. Another child killed by #Israel… Another father carrying his child to a Grave in #Gaza.”

In fact, the young girl had died years earlier, and was the victim of a home accident and not an Israeli airstrike. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| March 12, 2012
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Quartet issues bland statement on escalation

After UN meeting, group calls for calm in south, and for Israelis, Palestinians to remain engaged.

 

While the fighting in Gaza continued to rage Monday, the Quartet met at the UN, expressed “concern” at the violence, and — regarding the diplomatic process — called on the Israelis and Palestinian to “remain engaged” and “refrain from provocative actions.” The term “provocative action” is generally Quartet code for settlement construction.

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and UN Secretary-General ban Ki-moon meet at the UN headquarters, joined via a video-hook up by the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and Quartet envoy Tony Blair. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags:
| March 11, 2012
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Assad tells Annan ‘terrorists’ block Syria solution

Syrian president claims country ready for ‘any honest effort’ to end year of unrest, as bloody crackdown continues

 

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday to press for a political solution to Syria‘s year-long uprising and bloody crackdown in which thousands of people have been killed.

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan Photo: EPA

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan - Photo BY EPA

Assad told Annan his country was ready for “any honest effort” to end a year of unrest, but blamed “terrorist groups” for blocking a solution, the state news agency said.

“Syria is ready to make a success of any honest effort to find a solution for the events it is witnessing,” SANA quoted Assad as saying. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| March 9, 2012
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UN women’s rights panel due to culminate annual session by condemning Israel

Israel’s envoy to UN Prosor bemoans Commission on the Status of Women ‘obsessive’ preoccupation with Palestinian issue, while ignoring women being ‘butchered, tortured, raped’ in Syria.

The United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), scheduled to wrap up its annual session on Friday, is expected to pass a resolution condemning Israel’s part in the degrading of living conditions for Palestinian women, while failing to mention the mistreatment of women in the ongoing crisis in Syria.

Friday’s session will include such professional resolution as concerning “woman and natural disasters,” “women hostages,” women and girls and AIDS,” and “mortality among women.

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