Israeli claims that the UN is biased is causing friction like never before, writes Emad Gad Although Israel was created thanks to a United Nations resolution, since that time it has repeatedly ignored legitimate international resolutions. It has been aided in this by the United States which has vetoed several UN Security Council resolutions and prevented others from referring to Article 7 in the UN charter, which makes their implementation compulsory, as was the case, for example, with the resolution issued against Iraq after the occupation of Kuwait. Israel has also ignored resolutions issued by the UN General Assembly, which are not obligatory. Since the Palestinian case is one of the occupation of land by armed force, international law and the UN charter give the Palestinian people the right to resist occupation by force as well. Since its establishment, Israel has formed a hostile stance towards the UN and its various authorities, a stance that has since extended to other international humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross. The UN is the subject of a fair share of attack in the Israeli media, which accuses it of sympathising with the Palestinians. These are wholly unfounded charges, and several times Israeli politicians and diplomats have been forced to publicly apologise for such accusations after they have been proven false. Over the last few weeks, the Israeli media has led a harsh campaign against the UN and its secretary- general, Kofi Annan. The campaign has reached an unimaginable level rarely witnessed against any organisation in the world. One example is an article that appeared on www.walla.co.ilwww.walla.co.il/i entitled, "Israel: the UN gives refuge to murderers." The article read, "Danny Gillerman, Israel's representative at the United Nations, called on UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan to dismiss Peter Hansen, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), following photos released by the Israeli army that document Qassam rockets being put inside an ambulance marked 'UN' in the Jabaliya refugee camp. "Describing Hansen as 'an anti-Israeli inciter,' Gillerman said, 'We consider this incident to be extremely serious. I will lodge a strongly worded complaint with the secretary-general asking him to draw his own conclusions about UNRWA, study the issue, and form a serious investigative committee to thoroughly examine these reports. The UN, charged with keeping the peace, cannot be made a haven and refuge for killers.' "Hansen responded to the charges in an interview with Ha'aretz correspondent Amira Hass. He says that just a cursory investigation shows that the ambiguous object that appears in the photos is a stretcher. 'In a photo shown on television, two people are approaching two ambulances, one of them carrying something that cannot weigh more than a few kilogrammes,' Hansen said. 'No one can run while carrying a heavy Qassam rocket, no matter how strong he is.' "Hansen said that using the Google search engine, he had found that 'a Qassam rocket is about 180cms long and weighs about 50 kilogrammes. From the photos, we can conclude that the width of the object in question is about 5cms, while the diametre of a Qassam is 17cms. We can clearly see a piece of cloth in the photo, meaning this thing is an ambulance stretcher, something medics would naturally be carrying.' "Hansen added that he feared the IDF's baseless accusations would lead to 'consequences similar to incitement', since soldiers who believe the IDF will now be afraid of UNRWA ambulances as they approach the checkpoints. 'And we don't know to what extent this will endanger the lives of our ambulance crews,' he said." Reader responses to the article were filled with vitriol against the United Nations. One reader wrote, "It's time to expose the true face of the UN! I remind you that UN soldiers have been biased and perhaps even cooperated when Hizbullah abducted our soldiers in Har Dov. Remember what Ben-Gurion said about the UN: 'The UN is in shambles.'" Another wrote, "The UN: what hypocrites, liars, and murderers. Yes, yes, you are murderers. You help murderers and that makes you murderers! I'm disgusted. How low can the world go?" A third reader wrote, "Hitler would have felt that the UN was his home." A fourth comment read, "The UN provides refuge for murderers. Israeli soldiers should treat UN employees as people helping the enemy. Every UN vehicle must be thoroughly searched. If the driver does not obey instructions, he should be shot. UN vehicles and ambulances from the Gaza Strip should be considered terrorist vehicles and treated accordingly." One reader opined, "Let's destroy all their cars so they have to walk on foot," while another declared, "The UN is brimming with anti-Semitism." Another commentator said, "The UN pretends to be bringing peace but most of the time it simply causes wars. There is no more worthless, insolent organisation than the UN." One person suggested, "Let's declare Hansen persona non grata. Let's expel him from here." Another reader said, "Annan collaborates with the Palestinians. Now Annan the liar will deny it." One comment said, "The UN is no longer a legitimate organisation after it has shown that it cooperates with terrorism. No UN meeting or resolution is worth the paper it's written on. We need to operate according to our own interests, not the interest of the UN." And it is not simply a matter of a media campaign. The UN headquarters and UN organisations working in the occupied territories have been subjected to attacks by Israeli soldiers, and several UN workers have been detained for extensive periods of time. An article in Yediot Aharonot online reported that UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said that Israel has detained 25 UN employees under administrative arrest for nearly two years, without bringing charges against them or putting them on trial. The article said, "Eckhard said that one of the detainees, held in Gaza, is awaiting trial, while the remaining 24 have not been charged. 'UNRWA representatives have asked Israel to clarify the reasons for the arrests, but the authorities refuse to take these requests seriously.' "Eckhard also addressed another issue: Israel's claims that UNRWA workers aided those firing Qassam rockets, saying that there is a disagreement. 'Israel's claims that UNRWA employees are involved in terrorism make our job more complex and endanger our employees,' he said. 'The Israelis create an uproar in the media, but when it is time to declare the truth, we hear nothing.'" To read more about Israel and the United Nations, please visit the website of Arabs Against Discrimination www.aad-online.org.
