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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFTracker

UNITED NATIONS GATE, December 6 – On the United States' draft UN resolution to condemn Hamas, going into the Thursday afternoon meeting there was a Bolivian amendment. But after an hour's delay, the amendment was withdrawn and a vote held on whether to require a two thirds majority on the US draft. Outgoing US Ambassador Nikki Haley opposed this, but it passed, 75-72-28. Then Saudi Arabia spoke, as if it had already voted against the US resolution (not mention of Jamal Khashoggi or Yemen, of course). With the new threshold, the US draft failed, 87 yes, 58 no and 33 abstentions. There was some applause in the UNGA hall. (Some didn't vote at all, including with one vote to go Burundi, Togo and Chad, in the news for UN bribery, offers of weapons for oil that Antonio Guterres has not even audited or dis-accrediting, while having banned Inner City Press 155 days and counting). Finally a draft by Ireland, running for a UN Security Council seat against Norway and Canada, passed 155 yes, five no, 12 abstaining. And so it goes at the UN. On November 13 after the UNSC meeting those two countries' Ambassadors along with the State of Palestine's Permanent Observer Riyad Mansour took two questions at the stakeout that Inner City Press was banned from for the 132nd day by UNSC Antonio Guterres. Kuwait's Mansour Al-Otaibi said that most Council members would like to travel to the region. Palestine's Mansour cited a three kilometer incursion into the Gaza Strip by Israeli military men, some dressed in women's clothes. The first question went to Al Jazeera English, which worked with Antonio Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric to get Inner City Press roughed up by UN Security June 22 and July 3 then banned since, all the while marketing that Journalism Is Not A Crime. The question, responded to by Bolivia's Sacha Llorenti, was about Jared Kushner. And then it was over. Earlier 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 entering 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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