Free Republic

JERUSALEM - The international media this week buzzed with the news that Israel had accused the UN of allowing its ambulances in Gaza to participate in terrorist activities, only to back down when local representatives of the world body fought back. But far less attention was given to the fact that the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) in the Gaza Strip openly admitted Monday to having Hamas members on the payroll.

On Monday the Israeli ambassador to the UN demanded the resignation of Peter Hansen, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, accusing him of complicity in terror. However, the story began to unravel when the agency claimed that the object in the video was too thin and light to be a missile and that a militant would be more careful in handling a crude, homemade explosive device. A day later the agency produced the driver of the ambulance in question, who said that the object was a rolled-up stretcher and his crew had been on...

Bush forces UN refugee chief to go Israeli pressure backed by conservative and Jewish groups in US stops reappointment of controversial head of relief agency Chris McGreal in Gaza City Thursday January 20, 2005 The Guardian The Bush administration has blocked the reappointment of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency chief, Peter Hansen, after a campaign by conservative and Jewish groups in the US, and the government in Jerusalem which accused him of being an "Israel hater". Some European and Arab governments were keen for Mr Hansen to stay on at the end of his nine-year tenure but the US supported...