UN continues involvement in terrorist activity in the Palestinian territories

[DrGerry]

Hey, of course I can't believe such stupid un-info, but it was a lot of f**k in this thread and this is good

[Admiral]

The UN is good in principle, but in practice it needs to lose veto power, and needs to shift representation on the security council to reflect Britain and France's loss of world power status.
However, I have trouble believing that it is aiding Hamas. If the accounts are true, the vehicle was probably seized, and used as camoflage.

[Frozzy]

Admiral: Maybe France, but Britain is still providing considerable military clout whenever it is required, and that is the entire point of being a permanent member of the UNSC

[Giancarlo]

I got a better idea. Disband France and give it to Haiti.

[Iskandar Reza]

So that's what the UN is for??

Interesting.

[Flip McWho]

The security council needs disbanding in its entirety, its one of the reasons why the UN doesn't work.

****ing

[Space05us]

****ing
UN
US

[Iskandar Reza]

[Guardian]

It seems this is not being taken too seriously. Personally, I'm not sure what to make of it. If it's true, I think we ought to take this very seriously, but I'm not convinced yet.

UN officials said yesterday that they were investigating the matter, but they also said that Israeli sources have made false and/or inaccurate accusations against UN personnel in the past. Peter Hansen, Commissioner-General of The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was quoted as saying that this wouldn't be the first time the UN has been confronted with accusations that, upon investigation, have proven to be either totally unfounded or based on flawed evidence.

Israeli officials responded by calling for Hansen's resignation.

I say, this sounds kind of like "We can't control him, so he's got to go."
I must admit, that doesn't seem very convincing to me...

[dannubis]

same old same old ...

look the entire world is against us...

poor of us ...

/inside back room : let's shoot another missile at a terrorist leader without worrying about any "collateral damage"...

[Dr Strangelove]

The van has "UN" painted on its roof. That doesn't mean its actually a UN owned vehicle. Folks clever enough to have access to guided missles can probably scrounge up a can of black paint, figuring that a vehicle marked "UN" is less likely to get shot at by Israeli aircraft. In order to make a valid claim that the USN is secretly helping Hamas you need to seize the vehicle and prove that the vehicle was indeed UN owned and also that it wasn't stolen.

[Guardian]

I honestly didn't even think about that yet.

I'm still thinking more along the lines that it's not proven that there was a missile there at all. The images I've seen have all been of so low quality that they could have been loading an injured baby camel for all I know.

[Zevico]

In related news, the head of UNRWA has said that Hamas members are part of his organisation. But wait---they're only in the "political" wing of a fascist, fundamentalist group.
(from www.jpost.com)

The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) confirmed in a television interview that his group employs Hamas members in Gaza.

"I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime," UNRWA head Peter Hansen told Canada's CBC television Sunday.

Hamas has been declared a terror organization by the US and Canada, as well as the European Union.

"Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another," he said.

In the interview, Hansen added that "whatever their political persuasion is" members of his staff are required to "behave in accordance with UN standards and norms for neutrality."

According to the interview, Canada donates $10 million to UNWRA a year.

Israel has long accused UNRWA and its Gaza chief of bias in favor of the Palestinians.

Hansen's remarks add further fuel to accusations made by Israel based on footage released by the IDF showing terrorists placing a Kassam rocket inside a UN vehicle.

Earlier this week, the army released video footage taken by an unmanned aircraft flying over the Jabalya refugee camp which Israel says shows terrorists loading a Kassam rocket into a UN vehicle.

Declaring that it would be impossible to fling a rocket single handedly into the vehicle, Hansen said he supported the ambulance driver who said the footage shows him placing a stretcher inside the ambulance.

A security official told The Jerusalem Post that there are no doubts that a Kassam rocket was placed in the vehicle and said it was unfortunate that the comments made by Hansen didn't question the authenticity of the vehicle. "If there are any doubts they relate to the vehicle and whether it was indeed an authentic UN vehicle or whether the terrorists disguised a vehicle in order to evade being spotted by the army," the official said.

The recent incident is only one of a number of claims made by Israel in the past four years suggesting that terrorists take advantage of the UNWRA facilities and vehicles knowing they will not be subject to security checks and permitted unrestricted movement.

In April 2003, The Jerusalem Post obtained a document drawn up by the defense establishment claiming that terrorist organizations operating in Palestinian Authority controlled areas took advantage of UNWRA workers and their vehicles to transport terrorists and arms.

At that time, Peter Hansen vehemently denied the claims; however, the document noted that Palestinian terrorists arrested by Israeli security forces admitted to using UNWRA equipment, facilities and vehicles.

The defense report focused on UNWRA employee Nahed Rashid Ahmed Atallah, a resident of the Jabalya refugee camp, who was arrested in August 2002 as he returned to Gaza from Egypt.

The report claimed that Atallah, who worked in 1987 as the director of food supplies for refugees in the Gaza Strip, was provided with a UN vehicle and UN laissez-passer entitling him to unrestricted travel in the area.

Atallah later admitted to investigators that he used his vehicle to transport terrorists and arms. He also made use of his pass to travel to Egypt, Lebanon and Syria where he contacted members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and received funds and transported arms.

Atallah was charged on eight counts of aiding terror, including conspiring to trade in arms, assisting in attempted premeditated murder, and possessing illegal arms. Hansen, at the time, denied the claims.

A secret Shin Bet report also documented the use of UNWRA facilities to harbor terrorists and aid in terror activities. According to the report released in December 2002, a number of Palestinians who were arrested by the security forces admitted to using UNWRA facilities and vehicles to plot and carry out attacks.

One of the examples stated in the report pertained to Mohammed Ali Hassan, who was arrested in February 2002 and admitted to using a local UNWRA facility in Nablus for target practice and storing weapons.

The same report claimed that an UNWRA club located in the Jabalya refugee camp and another club in the El-Aroub refugee camp near Hebron were used as meeting points for Fatah-Tanzim activists.

The Shin Bet report also claimed that Nidal Nazal, an UNWRA ambulance driver arrested in July 2002, admitted to using his ambulance to transport ammunition to different terror cells. Other detainees who admitted using UNWRA vehicles to transport terrorists en route to perpetrate attacks were also detailed in the report.

At the time, the findings prompted the army to issue a directive restricting movement of UN vehicles in the West Bank and Gaza and instructing soldiers to allow such vehicles to pass only on the condition that at least two or three authorized UN or UNWRA personnel were traveling inside.

[Zulu Elephant]

It shocks me that people on this thread hate the UN so much that they'll jump on a an unproven factoid from a source with vested interests to call for its disbanding.

The UN is not perfect because international law is not perfect, the world's distribution of wealth and power is not perfect and because the nations of the world don't always agree (a good thing).

I dont want the UN to be some kind of world government and I don't believe that a state HAS to have UN backing in ALL cases to go to war but people who run down the UN have a despicable contempt for any hope that states can come together to find common ground. The number of people who hate the UN in a particular country is directly proportional to that country's ability to make it's way in the world without to UN - thats important to remember when trying (or not) to keep our arrogance in check

[Guardian]

What the...?!?!

Even if you do buy the argument that not all of them are terrorists, the Hamas is a party to the conflict and as such, their people are not fit to work for the UN because of conflicts interests, etc.

If this is really happening and the UN leaders keep saying they don't see any problem with it, I guess it's not so strange that the Israelis get a little pissed off at times.