Posted on 10/06/2004 3:44:09 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel will demand that U.N. investigators who arrived in Israel on Wednesday determine whether the world body employs people who "aid and abet" Palestinian militant groups, a senior Israeli official said.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent the team this week after Israel claimed a Palestinian rocket had been transported in a U.N. ambulance.
Although Israel has since backtracked on that claim, it insisted Wednesday that U.N. employees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip assist militants in carrying out attacks.
Israeli-U.N. relations have been strained for years, with Israel repeatedly accusing the world body of bias. The United Nations, meanwhile, has criticized Israeli policies and military operations in Palestinian areas.
The latest Israeli-U.N. flap erupted Friday, when Israel's army released footage taken by an unmanned surveillance aircraft that it said showed militants loading a rocket onto a U.N. ambulance.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency denied the allegation, saying the footage actually showed medics putting a stretcher into the back of an ambulance.
But its commissioner, Peter Hansen, said in a subsequent television interview that the agency's 24,000 employees probably include members of Hamas and other militant groups. "I don't see that as a crime," he said.
Hamas - both its military and political wings - is listed as a terrorist group by the State Department and the European Union.
On Tuesday, Israel backed away from the claims about the drone footage, and the army removed the footage from its official Web site.
Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said it appeared the army had erred in its initial analysis of the footage. However, he said, Israel was more concerned that UNRWA employees are members of militant groups.
"We will not exonerate them. We will not allow because of this mistake the continuation of using and exploiting UNRWA facilities and UNRWA personnel to aid and abet terrorist organizations," Gissin said.
"We are talking about an organization that in the past four years has actually been kidnapped and hijacked by these terrorist organizations," he said.
Israel will provide the U.N. team - headed by Geir Pederson, formerly Norway's chief diplomatic representative for the Palestinian Authority - with all the documents it has available, as well as the drone footage, to prove that UNRWA is too close to militant groups, Gissin said.
In a radio interview Wednesday, Hansen criticized Israel's handling of the drone footage and warned against making false, hasty allegations against his agency.
"I don't think it was quite responsible because in the meantime the mud that has been slung at the agency will tend to stick," he told Israel's Army Radio.
Israel personally criticized Hansen, accusing him of bias and hinting that it wanted him removed as the head of UNRWA.
"I think the issue is beyond Peter Hansen himself," said Dore Gold, an Israeli government official and former ambassador to the United Nations. "The question is whether it's acceptable for a U.N. specialized agency to employ people who belong to a terrorist organization which is recognized as such by the United States and the European Union."
In a separate development, an Israeli army commander said Wednesday that 13 UNRWA employees had been arrested in Gaza during an unspecified period of time for links to militant groups and that some would be charged.
Rene Aquarone, the director of UNRWA's executive office in Gaza, said in the past four years the group's staff have been "very regularly arrested by Israeli authorities."
At one point, he said, 80 employees were in Israeli custody, but UNRWA has no access to them and often does not know on what grounds they are being held.
Often, Israel holds the staff members under "administrative detention," meaning they can be held without being charged.
..time to remove the UN from US soil...and move the UN to CHAD.
What did Chad deserve to get this corrupt lot?
Unfortunately, most people in this country hold on to the belief that the UN is the answer to peace and prosperity and justice in this world because the MSM will not cover their worthlessness and corruption. Lou Dobbs (one of the few who will report) kept asking some liberal woman today to name something the UN has done that actually promoted peace or any thing good...she couldn't.
Do you believe the United Nations, in the pursuit of peace, is most often:
Helpful 69% 2823 votes
Unhelpful 31% 1271 votes
Total: 4094 votes
www.cnn.com/lou
Number of U.N. General Assembly resolutions condemning Israel: 322
Number of U.N. General Assembly resolutions condemning an Arab country: 0
From Dennis Prager archives july 27,2004
I have a dream!!!
I have a dream!!!
Wow...my computer has a dream too....it just did that second post on its own!
"Total: 4094 votes"
That's a very small poll.
But its commissioner, Peter Hansen, said in a subsequent television interview that the agency's 24,000 employees probably include members of Hamas and other militant groups. "I don't see that as a crime," he said.
Hamas - both its military and political wings - is listed as a terrorist group by the State Department and the European Union.
>>>
Unbefreakinglievable. Oh, wait, totally believable...
"I have a dream!!!"
>>>
And I have a pic/axe, shovel and wheelbarrow!
I'd even rent some heavy equipment, no shi'ite!
Oh, and plastic gloves, lots of protection necessary when tearing down the UN...lol
*smack to forehead* Well....I was trying to relocated the UN to part of the world where "the harm (to freedom) would be minimized".
...but, your correct, the UN MUST be relocated in a very corrupt and/or poor country...How about France or Mexico... :))
..I concur, your computer has become "self-aware".
...hope you aren't visiting any X-rated sites..like DU (and others not mentioned here. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.