The UN and Hamas...
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Mycroft:
"There was also recent video of UN vehicles being used to transport kassam rockets. One would think the UN would bend over backwards to make sure their equipment is not misused this way."
E.J.Armstrong:
"Correction - there was an allegation by an Israeli source.
There is a difference between what certain Israeli sources say and the truth in the same way there is a difference between what Dubbya claims and the truth, or what Tony Bliar says and the truth etc."
Good call:
Israeli Military Backs Off U.N. Claim
Tuesday October 5, 2004 2:31 PM
By PETER ENAV
Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli military said Tuesday it is re-evaluating its claim that Palestinian militants used a U.N. vehicle to transport a homemade rocket - an apparent retreat in a high-profile confrontation with the world body.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency said it has been informed that Israel will retract the accusation.
Last week, the military distributed a video, taken from an unmanned Israeli aircraft, that showed three Palestinians near a U.N. ambulance, including one who carried an elongated object and at one point tossed it into the vehicle.
UNRWA officials insisted the object was a stretcher, not a rocket.
The blurred footage was taken in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, the main target of an Israeli military offensive aimed at stopping Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli border towns and Jewish settlement.
On Tuesday, the military removed the video from its Web site.
``The Israeli Defense Forces are reviewing the original analysis of the footage, in which UNRWA vehicles are seen involved in suspicious activity in the combat zone in Gaza,'' an army statement said.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a study of the video indicated the object may not have been a rocket and could have been a stretcher. The official said no definite conclusion has been reached.
Matthias Burchard, chief of the UNRWA Liaison Office in Geneva, said Tuesday the Israeli military has confirmed it will retract the rocket allegation.
Burchard said UNRWA was able to confirm quickly that the object was a stretcher. ``We are therefore quite astounded that the IDF, with its superior technology, was not able to do so before launching its campaign,'' he said.
The claims may have endangered UNRWA staff, Burchard added. ``Once an allegation is out there, it maybe gives soldiers the inclination to shoot first before asking questions,'' he said.
Following the initial release of the video, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, said he would ask U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to investigate Peter Hansen, the UNRWA chief in Gaza.
Gillerman accused Hansen of anti-Israeli bias.
On Monday, Hansen infuriated Israel by saying the Islamic militant group Hamas, responsible for killing hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and branded a terror group by the U.S. State Department, was a political organization.
Hansen also acknowledged that Hamas sympathizers might be working for the agency. UNRWA, which assists Palestinian refugees, has thousands of employees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Relations between Israel and UNRWA have been tense. Israel has accused the agency of turning a blind eye to the involvement of some of its Palestinian employees in violence against Israelis. The agency has denied the allegations.
Gideon Meir, an Israeli government spokesman, told Israel Army Radio on Tuesday that until the military has made a definite ruling, ``we have every reason to believe that weapons were involved here.''
The United Nations held a news conference Sunday in Gaza to respond to the Israeli charges, showing what it said was the ambulance seen in the video and presenting its driver and rescue workers to reporters.
Rescue worker Wahel Ghabayen, 38, said he had run with a stretcher to a school in Jebaliya on Friday, after he heard that someone there may have been wounded. He said the wounded boy had already been moved by the time he arrived.
``I came back to the car with the stretcher, and I folded it and threw it inside the car,'' he said. ``If it was a missile, I would not throw it into the car but would put it in carefully.''
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4535593,00.html
"There was also recent video of UN vehicles being used to transport kassam rockets. One would think the UN would bend over backwards to make sure their equipment is not misused this way."
E.J.Armstrong:
"Correction - there was an allegation by an Israeli source.
There is a difference between what certain Israeli sources say and the truth in the same way there is a difference between what Dubbya claims and the truth, or what Tony Bliar says and the truth etc."
Good call:
Israeli Military Backs Off U.N. Claim
Tuesday October 5, 2004 2:31 PM
By PETER ENAV
Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli military said Tuesday it is re-evaluating its claim that Palestinian militants used a U.N. vehicle to transport a homemade rocket - an apparent retreat in a high-profile confrontation with the world body.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency said it has been informed that Israel will retract the accusation.
Last week, the military distributed a video, taken from an unmanned Israeli aircraft, that showed three Palestinians near a U.N. ambulance, including one who carried an elongated object and at one point tossed it into the vehicle.
UNRWA officials insisted the object was a stretcher, not a rocket.
The blurred footage was taken in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, the main target of an Israeli military offensive aimed at stopping Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli border towns and Jewish settlement.
On Tuesday, the military removed the video from its Web site.
``The Israeli Defense Forces are reviewing the original analysis of the footage, in which UNRWA vehicles are seen involved in suspicious activity in the combat zone in Gaza,'' an army statement said.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a study of the video indicated the object may not have been a rocket and could have been a stretcher. The official said no definite conclusion has been reached.
Matthias Burchard, chief of the UNRWA Liaison Office in Geneva, said Tuesday the Israeli military has confirmed it will retract the rocket allegation.
Burchard said UNRWA was able to confirm quickly that the object was a stretcher. ``We are therefore quite astounded that the IDF, with its superior technology, was not able to do so before launching its campaign,'' he said.
The claims may have endangered UNRWA staff, Burchard added. ``Once an allegation is out there, it maybe gives soldiers the inclination to shoot first before asking questions,'' he said.
Following the initial release of the video, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, said he would ask U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to investigate Peter Hansen, the UNRWA chief in Gaza.
Gillerman accused Hansen of anti-Israeli bias.
On Monday, Hansen infuriated Israel by saying the Islamic militant group Hamas, responsible for killing hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and branded a terror group by the U.S. State Department, was a political organization.
Hansen also acknowledged that Hamas sympathizers might be working for the agency. UNRWA, which assists Palestinian refugees, has thousands of employees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Relations between Israel and UNRWA have been tense. Israel has accused the agency of turning a blind eye to the involvement of some of its Palestinian employees in violence against Israelis. The agency has denied the allegations.
Gideon Meir, an Israeli government spokesman, told Israel Army Radio on Tuesday that until the military has made a definite ruling, ``we have every reason to believe that weapons were involved here.''
The United Nations held a news conference Sunday in Gaza to respond to the Israeli charges, showing what it said was the ambulance seen in the video and presenting its driver and rescue workers to reporters.
Rescue worker Wahel Ghabayen, 38, said he had run with a stretcher to a school in Jebaliya on Friday, after he heard that someone there may have been wounded. He said the wounded boy had already been moved by the time he arrived.
``I came back to the car with the stretcher, and I folded it and threw it inside the car,'' he said. ``If it was a missile, I would not throw it into the car but would put it in carefully.''
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4535593,00.html
E.J.Armstrong
Illuminator
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At the time Mycroft posted I had already heard that the accuracy of the Israeli claim was in doubt. It seems he hadn't otherwise he wouldn't have posted a false claim by an official Israeli source, would he?
a_unique_person
Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning
zenith-nadir said:Israel Official Seeks U.N. Official Probe - Sun Oct 3, 3:05 PM ET Of course they deny the accusation, but ironically don't have a problem admitting to employing Hamas members...
Yeah, right.
UN still waiting for Israeli apology
Tuesday 02 November 2004, 8:40 Makka Time, 5:40 GMT
Hansen (L) has asked Israel to apologise for false accusations
The United Nations is still waiting for Israel to apologise for an erroneous allegation that Palestinians used a UN ambulance to transport a rocket.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), an aid agency active in the West Bank and Gaza, had hoped for "a fresh start" in long-strained relations with Israel after the charge was found to have no basis.
"I asked for an apology. I never got one, and I am still waiting for one, although not with bated breath," said UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen on Monday.
His comments came while he spoke to reporters during a visit to New York to address the 191-nation UN General Assembly.
Criticism continued
But instead of apologising, Israeli officials had quickly resumed criticising the agency behind its back, Hansen said.
"I asked for an apology. I never got one, and I am still waiting for one, although not with bated breath"
Peter Hansen,
UNRWA commissioner-general
The initial Israeli accusation, based on blurry black-and-white video footage filmed by an Israeli military drone, was made in early October as Israeli forces carried out an invasion in Gaza against Palestinian rocket attacks targeting Israeli settlements and border towns.
Hansen at the time said the allegation endangered UNRWA staff working in the Palestinian territories by encouraging Israeli troops to think UN vehicles were "transporting terrorists and weapons".
Stretcher, not rocket
A UN investigation concluded that the object identified by Israel as a Palestinian Qassam rocket was in fact a stretcher, a finding Israel did not dispute.
But within days, he heard from other governments - which he did not identify - that the Israeli government was making the rounds with a private briefing spelling out 29 additional
allegations of UNRWA wrongdoing, he said.
UNRWA had responses to all 29 allegations but had never been informed of the charges directly by Israel, he said.
The recent incidents were only the latest in dozens of cases in which Israel levelled charges against his agency that ultimately were found to be without foundation, he said.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C632CD03-92AB-49F2-87D1-F1F9924
Tuesday 02 November 2004, 8:40 Makka Time, 5:40 GMT
Hansen (L) has asked Israel to apologise for false accusations
The United Nations is still waiting for Israel to apologise for an erroneous allegation that Palestinians used a UN ambulance to transport a rocket.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), an aid agency active in the West Bank and Gaza, had hoped for "a fresh start" in long-strained relations with Israel after the charge was found to have no basis.
"I asked for an apology. I never got one, and I am still waiting for one, although not with bated breath," said UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen on Monday.
His comments came while he spoke to reporters during a visit to New York to address the 191-nation UN General Assembly.
Criticism continued
But instead of apologising, Israeli officials had quickly resumed criticising the agency behind its back, Hansen said.
"I asked for an apology. I never got one, and I am still waiting for one, although not with bated breath"
Peter Hansen,
UNRWA commissioner-general
The initial Israeli accusation, based on blurry black-and-white video footage filmed by an Israeli military drone, was made in early October as Israeli forces carried out an invasion in Gaza against Palestinian rocket attacks targeting Israeli settlements and border towns.
Hansen at the time said the allegation endangered UNRWA staff working in the Palestinian territories by encouraging Israeli troops to think UN vehicles were "transporting terrorists and weapons".
Stretcher, not rocket
A UN investigation concluded that the object identified by Israel as a Palestinian Qassam rocket was in fact a stretcher, a finding Israel did not dispute.
But within days, he heard from other governments - which he did not identify - that the Israeli government was making the rounds with a private briefing spelling out 29 additional
allegations of UNRWA wrongdoing, he said.
UNRWA had responses to all 29 allegations but had never been informed of the charges directly by Israel, he said.
The recent incidents were only the latest in dozens of cases in which Israel levelled charges against his agency that ultimately were found to be without foundation, he said.
Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C632CD03-92AB-49F2-87D1-F1F9924
Segnosaur
Penultimate Amazing
demon said:
Ummm... isn't the statement by the Israeli army that it was wrong about militants using an ambulance to transport a rocket an example of Israel admitting its mistakes?
zenith-nadir
Illuminator
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Funny you say that.Segnosaur said:
Israel won't apologize to UNRWA - Nov. 2, 2004 22:07
Hell the UN not only allows terrorists and their organizations to operate feely out of UNRWA camps it frikkin hires them to work for them! (see: story at top) And then Hansen has the "balls" to ask for an apology....amazing..... just an illustration of the UN's M.O. in the Middle East.
Mycroft
High Priest of Ed
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demon said:
I'm old enough to realize you don't often hear politicians apologizing for anything. Admitting they're wrong is about as good as you get, you don’t get the "We’re sorry" broadcast by the media. I think not accepting that and making an issue of it is the emotional immaturity.
E.J.Armstrong
Illuminator
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I think the point is that the Israeli government misled the world. As they now seem unable to apologise, the world will presumably take this as acknowledgement that it was a deliberate act rather than an honest mistake.