On Gaza
UN Security
Council To
Meet After
Israel Danon
Urges Hamas
Designation
With Press
Banned
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR Letter
PFTracker
UNITED NATIONS
GATE, November 13– On Gaza
there will be a UN Security
Council consultation meeting
on November 13, at the request
of Kuwait and Bolivia. At 3:30
pm, Israel's Ambassador Danny
Danon spoke to (some)
reporters at the Council
stakeout position. Inner City
Press, which has covered this
issue for a decade at the UN,
was banned from enter the UN
to cover this meeting, by
Antonio Guterres who is out of
town, this time in DC but
without meeting with a single
Administration official but
attending a predatory
investor's award ceremony.
This is today's UN. Israel's
Mission provided this: "Every
time Hamas shoots a rocket -
children at school, adults at
work, families all over the
country hear this" Danon said
to the sound of the "red
alert" air raid siren playing
from a phone. "Think of the
children running fearfully
into bomb shelters," he
continued. "Certain morally
bankrupt members of the
Security Council will jump to
blame Israel, and others who
pretend to be objective will
call for restraint on both
sides. But let me be clear:
there is no 'both sides'.
There is Hamas that attacks
and fires over 460 missiles at
civilians, and there is Israel
that protects its people. The
Security Council must condemn
Hamas for its aggressive
assault and finally designate
it as a terrorist
organization," Danon said.
Palestine has written to the
absent Guterres, including "On
11 November, an Israeli
military so-called “undercover
unit”, using a civilian car
and dressed as civilians, in
violation of the principle of
distinction, entered 3km (2
miles) inside the Gaza Strip.
invading east of Khan Younis
city in the southern Gaza
Strip and killing seven
Palestinians. This attack has
stoked high tensions and
provoked yet another cycle of
violence between the two sides
that risks further escalation
and destabilization,
jeopardizing the lives of
millions of innocent
civilians. Since yesterday,
Israel, the occupying power,
has been carrying out
large-scale assault against
civilian areas in the Gaza
Strip. These air strikes
constitute the most intense
military raids and attacks
since 2014. Six more
Palestinians were killed as a
result of the bombing of
numerous civilian properties,
including a hotel building and
a television station building
that were targeted and
destroyed by the occupying
forces." Back in
June, 12
days
after Kuwait's
draft UN
Security Council resolution
was vetoed by
the US, on
June 13 an essentially
identical
draft was
adopted in the UN
General
Assembly with
120 in favor,
eight against
and 45 abstaining.
But what did
it accomplish?
Now on
November
12, this from
the Israeli
Mission: "Israel's
ambassador to
the UN, Danny
Danon,
appealed to
the Security
Council
Tuesday to
condemn the
firing of
hundreds of
rockets at
Israel. In
his letter to
the Council's
members, the
ambassador
noted that 'after
a day of
rocket
barrages,
there is no
room for any
other
definition of
Hamas except
that of
terrorist
organization.
To the world
it presents
its civilians
as victims,
but then uses
them as human
shields.' The
ambassador
added that 'Israel
cooperated
with all
international
bodies,
including the
UN, but the
aggressive
escalation
from Gaza
indicates that
there are
elements
pushing for
another round
of violence
that will
cause
destruction
and losses
within the
Gaza Strip.'" UNSG Antonio
Guterres, just off his
16th junket to
Lisbon was in
Paris for two
speeches.
Al Jazeera
flew its
correspondent
who worked
with
Guterres'
Stephne
Dujarric to
get Inner City Press
roughed up June 22 and
July
3 and
banned
since to Paris,
where he put
out this breaking/broken
news:
Guterres called the
situation in
Gaza "very serious."
Later
the UN issued
this: "
The
Secretary-General
is following
closely the
latest
security
developments
in Gaza. He
urges all
parties to
exercise
maximum
restraint. The
United Nations
Special
Coordinator,
Nickolay
Mladenov, is
working
closely with
Egypt and all
concerned
parties to
restore
calm.Farhan
Haq, Deputy
Spokesman for
the
Secretary-General New
York, 12
November
2018." The same
Farhan Haq who
did not answer a
single one of
the six
questions
Inner City
Press submitted in
writing at noon
on November
12 - while his
boss Dujarric
reached out selectively
to Europe to
defends the ban of
Inner City Press...
***
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