Amazon.com Widgets

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

The UN is moving some of its people out of the Gaza Strip due to the security situation in which Palestinian Arabs have started shooting at each other and taking each other and foreign workers hostage. Of course, who does Peter Hansen, of the worse-than-useless UNRWA, blame? Israel, of course.

(Via LGF) Haaretz - UN to move 20 workers from Gaza to Jerusalem

The United Nations has decided to move 20 people working in UN facilities in Gaza - about a third of its foreign crews - to the UN headquarters in Armon Hanatziv in Jerusalem. The other 40 non-Palestinians working for the UN in Gaza will remain at their jobs.

The transfer was ordered by Peter Hansen, UNRWA commissioner general in Gaza, who is also responsible for the security of all the UN organizations operating in the strip. According to a Hansen spokesman, the transfer of the 20 was the result of "the security situation in the area of the Erez Junction and Beit Hanoun, where IDF forces are operating and which endanger the movement of UN people entering and leaving Gaza."

But other international groups operating in Gaza said that the real reason for the redeployment of the civilian foreigners is the deteriorating security in recent months, and particularly the events in Gaza last weekend when French aid workers were briefly kidnapped by armed Palestinians...

Yes, the IDF makes things so difficult they retreat directly into Jerusalem.

And further on, we find why it was that UN envoy Terje Roed Larsen finally criticized Arafat - his own bacon was on the line.

...Since the October 2003 attack on an American diplomatic convoy in which three American security guards were killed, diplomatic missions in Gaza have beefed up their security. Sources in Gaza said that two months ago, Secretary General Kofi Annan was warned by a third party that an armed faction in Gaza was plotting to kidnap Annan's envoy to the region, Terje Roed Larsen, in an attempt to pressure the Israeli government.

The sources said that a demonstration of thousands that took place during the IDF operation in Rafah was actually meant to reach a Gaza City compound where Roed Larsen was often located. During the march, 17 armed men managed to get inside the compound, and when they didn't find the Norwegian diplomat they demanded he make an appearance, and at the same time they began summoning the media. Roed Larsen refused to comply with their demand and eventually the armed men left. The UN subsequently learned the armed men planned to hold Roed Larsen hostage while they made demands...

This is a guy who makes a living as a mouthpiece for an organization that makes a living villifying Israel - until the moment his own ass is on the line, THEN he has something to say. What a hypocrite. I'd like to plant he and a few international judges in a community just inside the fence and say, "I tell you what, we'll leave a hole in the fence just here, OK?"

And where are the screaming champions of press freedom, the yammering nobs seeking signs of crushed dissent. Here's a cause for you:

...Palestinian sources said Tuesday that allies of Mousa Arafat, named this past weekend to head most of the security groups in Gaza, convened the Palestinian press in Gaza and ordered them not to report on marches and other activities by Mousa Arafat's opponents, particularly supporters of his main opponent Mohammed Dahlan...

Pressure on the press - even physical pressure - is a common occurrence in "Palestine." Remember that whenever you hear a report, by any source, even the international ones, emanating from there. The truth is probably much worse, and much farther from the PA party line, than you surmise.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Search


Archives
[an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive]