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[rooster59]

Senior U.N. official quits after 'apartheid' Israel report pulled

 

U.N. Under-Secretary General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf speaks during a news conference announcing her resignation from the United Nations in Beirut, Lebanon, March 17, 2017. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi

 

BEIRUT/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A senior U.N. official resigned on Friday over the withdrawal of a report accusing Israel of imposing an "apartheid regime" on Palestinians, saying "powerful member states" pressured the world body and its chief with "vicious attacks and threats."

United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary for the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Rima Khalaf, announced her resignation at a news conference in Beirut after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asked for the report to be taken off the ESCWA website.

ESCWA, which comprises 18 Arab states, published the report on Wednesday and said it was the first time a U.N. body had clearly charged that Israel "has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole."

Israel fiercely rejects the allegation and likened the report to Der Sturmer - a Nazi propaganda publication that was strongly anti-Semitic. The United States, an ally of Israel, had said it was outraged and demanded the report be withdrawn.

"I do not find it surprising that such member states, who now have governments with little regard for international norms and values of human rights, will resort to intimidation when they find it hard to defend their unlawful policies and practices," Khalaf, of Jordan, wrote to Guterres.

"It is only normal for criminals to pressure and attack those who advocate the cause of their victims," Khalaf wrote in the resignation letter, seen by Reuters, adding that she stands by the ESCWA report.

Israel and the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Khalaf's letter.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said earlier on Friday that Khalaf's resignation was appropriate and Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said it was "long overdue.

"Anti-Israel activists do not belong in the UN," Danon said in a statement."

"U.N. agencies must do a better job of eliminating false and biased work, and I applaud the Secretary-General's decision to distance his good office from it," Haley said in a statement.

The report was published without consultation with the U.N. secretariat, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric had said.

"This is not about content, this is about process," Dujarric told reporters in New York on Friday.

"The secretary-general cannot accept that an under-secretary general or any other senior U.N. official that reports to him would authorise the publication under the U.N. name, under the U.N. logo, without consulting the competent departments and even himself," he said.

One of the authors of the report was Richard Falk, a former U.N. human rights investigator for the Palestinian territories, whom the United States has accused of being biased against Israel.

The ESCWA report said it had established on the "basis of scholarly inquiry and overwhelming evidence, that Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid."

While the report was taken off the ECWAS website, Khalaf told reporters: "Let me be clear, the report was issued ... and has impacts. The member states received copies of this report. And it is available."

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-03-18

[jollyhangmon]

> ..."This is not about content, this is about process," Dujarric told reporters in New York on Friday. ...<

 

Yeah, sure, i believe it (...) - thanks for another morning-chuckle, much appreciated! 

[Somtamnication]

Yep, write the truth about Israel then you have to quit. So much for impartiality! 

[redwinecheese]

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

Another stooge as usual

Edited March 18, 2017 by redwinecheese

[redwinecheese]

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary for the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Rima Khalaf

At least she's got guts

Edited March 18, 2017 by redwinecheese

[redwinecheese]

I suggest the number of security council should include Israel so U.S dose not take the blame anymore.

Edited March 18, 2017 by redwinecheese

[Morch]

1 hour ago, jollyhangmon said:

> ..."This is not about content, this is about process," Dujarric told reporters in New York on Friday. ...<

 

Yeah, sure, i believe it (...) - thanks for another morning-chuckle, much appreciated! 

 

Not that I fully disagree, but also, it is not common practice for UN agencies and bodies to publicly release such reports, and present them as representing general UN assent, without clearing things with UN leadership beforehand. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Somtamnication said:

Yep, write the truth about Israel then you have to quit. So much for impartiality! 

 

It is funny raising the issue of "impartiality" considering that the membership of the UN body commissioning the "report" is made up of mostly Arab countries, the majority of do not officially recognize Israel. The same goes for commissioning the two authors, who are anything but "impartial", but rather have a long, documented history of voicing similar views and producing similar papers and reports.

 

As for "truth", allow me to doubt that any of the learned comments in this topic (so far) are by posters who actually read the "report".

[Jingthing]

She's showboating. Nobody knew who she was until she quit. 

 

So nations in that region largely hate Israel, are largely biased against Israel, will always paint Israel in the worst possible light regardless of any objective reality. That's your truth. 

Edited March 18, 2017 by Jingthing

[ezzra]

1 hour ago, Somtamnication said:

Yep, write the truth about Israel then you have to quit. So much for impartiality! 

 

Yeah write the truth about Israel but don't leave out the good bits will you?

why demonizing and vilifying Israel and never anything good to say about

Israel and it's contributions to humanity, science, new age technologies and

all around fair contributor to the world in whole?  surly something is good there

that no one ever mention but yet completely blind to millions of people under going

genocides just stone throw from Israel, Syria Iraq, Iran Lebanon, no one seems to

care what is going over there.....

[Morch]

Just now, Jingthing said:

She's showboating. Nobody knew who she was until she quit. 

 

On the international level, not so much. Regionally and locally, that's not so. Of course, it will come handy when cruising to the next post, or with regard to her political base back home.

[ezzra]

1 hour ago, redwinecheese said:

At least she's got guts

 

Yeah guts full of hate and disdain, blinded by deep seeded, well rooted animosity

and a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, a person like that should be

selling fish in the market, not head a committee that has to be impartial at any cost....

[Jingthing]

You know there is a very wide consensus even among Israelis that Israeli expansion of west bank settlements is not supportive of moving towards real peace negotiations for a two state solution (which a majority of Israelis support). Similarly this kind of very biased report ... it's not helpful and only serves to encourage the Israeli right wing to circle the wagons. 

[redwinecheese]

5 minutes ago, ezzra said:

 

Yeah guts full of hate and disdain, blinded by deep seeded, well rooted animosity

and a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, a person like that should be

selling fish in the market, not head a committee that has to be impartial at any cost....

We all know rocks can be shaped by running water through time so, why your hearts are harder than rocks?

[dave_boo]

Amusing that she comes from an Arab state that refused to sign the UN Declaration of Human Rights as being incompatible with Sharia and yet wants to say:

 

who now have governments with little regard for international norms and values of human rights

[Morch]

32 minutes ago, redwinecheese said:

We all know rocks can be shaped by running water through time so, why your hearts are harder than rocks?

 

What's on offer is acid, not water.

[ilostmypassword]

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

You know there is a very wide consensus even among Israelis that Israeli expansion of west bank settlements is not supportive of moving towards real peace negotiations for a two state solution (which a majority of Israelis support). Similarly this kind of very biased report ... it's not helpful and only serves to encourage the Israeli right wing to circle the wagons. 

Actually, there is an overwhelming consensus among Israelis in support of expanding settlements in the West Bank.

[Baerboxer]

On the face of it, looks like an Arab/Islamic pressure group released a report condemning Israel which they branded as UN without following any of the established protocols and procedures for doing such.

 

She is correct to resign and I wouldn't be surprised if that resignation was requested. The UN, for all its shortcomings, isn't a mouth piece for religious, racial, or political pressure groups. 

[andersonat]

4 hours ago, Jingthing said:

So nations in that region largely hate Israel, are largely biased against Israel, will always paint Israel in the worst possible light regardless of any objective reality. That's your truth. 

 

So Israel largely hates the nations in that region, is largely biased against them, and will always paint them in the worst possible light regardless of any objective reality. That's another  truth. 

 

 

[Jingthing]

 
So Israel largely hates the nations in that region, is largely biased against them, and will always paint them in the worst possible light regardless of any objective reality. That's another  truth. 
 
 

I wouldn't phrase it that way but historically all of them wished Israel didn't exist.

[redwinecheese]

We all know the ugly face of Israel but hold your horses because nobody on earth can do anything about it.

[Morch]

5 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

Actually, there is an overwhelming consensus among Israelis in support of expanding settlements in the West Bank.

 

I doubt it. Such consensus would exist with regard to Jerusalem, and to a lesser degree, several of the larger, established settlements in the West Bank. There was no such consensus in evidence with regard to Israel's disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip (which did include several settlements in the West Bank as well), or with regard to the recent evacuation of Amona. There would be more support for "expansion" if this relates to building in existing settlements rather than the construction of new settlements.

 

Not exactly on topic.

 

[Morch]

3 hours ago, andersonat said:

 

So Israel largely hates the nations in that region, is largely biased against them, and will always paint them in the worst possible light regardless of any objective reality. That's another  truth. 

 

 

 

You'd have a better point if Israel had commissioned a similar UN body report aimed against its neighbors. In reality, most of the UN action on this front is directed at Israel, most times commissioned or sponsored the same countries. The OP deals with such a case, not with an imaginary scenario of Israeli targeting these countries via the UN.

[metisdead]

Troll posts and replies have been removed. 

[Dumbastheycome]

No indication  as to the veracity or  otherwise of the  report. 

Oy vey!

[Jingthing]

1 hour ago, redwinecheese said:

We all know the ugly face of Israel but hold your horses because nobody on earth can do anything about it.

I think there are positive and negative "faces" of most any nation and Israel is no exception.

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, Dumbastheycome said:

No indication  as to the veracity or  otherwise of the  report. 

Oy vey!

Imagine the drama if they had come to different conclusions than you would expect from that particular group. There was never any chance of that!

[Dumbastheycome]

Just now, Jingthing said:

Imagine the drama if they had come to different conclusions than you would expect from that particular group. There was never any chance of that!

So  do  you  verify that the UN  sanctions  only  what is  acceptable to the ruling  nation/s rather than what is true?

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, Dumbastheycome said:

So  do  you  verify that the UN  sanctions  only  what is  acceptable to the ruling  nation/s rather than what is true?

I'm not going to touch that gobbledygook with a ten foot bagel stick. 

[Dumbastheycome]

Just now, Jingthing said:

I'm not going to touch that gobbledygook with a ten foot bagel stick. 

It is  no  gobbledygook. Probably  why  even a  ten foot  bagel would  never  beat  down the  stench of sweaty palms  within the  UN !

[AGLV0121]

12 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

write the truth about Israel then you have to quit. So much for impartiality!

 

Oh yes. Go see by yourself or read this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jake-beaumont/israel-not-apartheid-state_b_9128056.html