Israel’s apparent disdain for the United Nations continues. Despite the gravity of the incident where 4 UNIFIL observers died due to a precision-guided missile from Israeli forces, the U.N.’s initial request for a joint investigation into this tragedy has been completely rejected by both the U.S. & Israel.
Dan Gillermanalso said Israel would not allow the United Nations to join in an investigation of an Israeli air strike that demolished a post belonging to the current UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. Four UN observers were killed in the Tuesday strike.
“Israel has never agreed to a joint investigation, and I don’t think that if anything happened in this country, or in Britain or in Italy or in France, the government of that country would agree to a joint investigation,” Gillerman said.
Well, it so happens the Ambassador has conveniently forgotten that the Palestinian government agreed to a joint investigation after a bombing of American diplomats in 2003…
Back when Yassar Arafat was leading Palestine and Colin Powell was the Secretary of State, a roadside bomb was detonated in Beit Hanoun in Gaza. The explosion killed 3 American security personnel and injured one. As the BBC reported:
US ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer said the convoy had been on their way to interview people for a scholarship in the United States when they were attacked.
The US State department has urged all American citizens in the Gaza Strip to leave the area – and those in the West Bank to be cautious.
The victims were described by the ambassador as contract security staff. Two of the men died outright, the third afterwards and the fourth was in a stable condition.
Yassar Arafat immediately condemned the attack and offered sympathies to George W. Bush:
Meantime, the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat condemned the attack and offered his condolences to President George W. Bush. He said in a statement that he ”strongly condemns and denounces targeting the American observers who are carrying out their mission for security and peace.”
He then did — without pressure — what Israeli Prime Minister Omert refused to do with the United Nations.
The statement added that Arafat gave instructions to form a joint investigation committee with the American side and the Quartet to uncover this crime. The statement said that the Palestinian President ”offered his heart- felt condolences to President George Bush and families of the victims.”
Now, granted, these are highly different circumstances and it was not the Palestinian government that was accused of attacking the Americans, but read what President Bush had to say after this strong rebuke and effort at a joint co-operation by Arafat:
In a written statement issued from Air Force One as he flew to California, President Bush blamed the failure of the Palestinian leadership to create a security system that could fight terror and specifically named Palestinian President Yasser Arafat as the one resisting such needed reforms.
”The failure to create effective Palestinian security forces dedicated to fighting terror continues to cost lives. The failure to undertake these reforms and dismantle the terrorist organizations constitutes the greatest obstacle to achieving the Palestinian people’s dream of statehood,” Bush added.
Wow! Such “diplomatic” appreciation for something the Israeli government says is a rarity — that is, joint investigations into international killing incidents.
And what kind of “diplomatic” language does the Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. use to describe the name “UNIFIL” after this tragedy?
“Interim in UN jargon is 28 years,” he said.
Here he is mocking an internationally respected group after 4 members die from an attack by his own military.
That’s a whole new kind of Chutzpah!
I haven’t found a good explanation as to why Israel & the U.S. rejects this joint investigation.
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NEW YORK (United Nations) by Evelyn Leopold
The Scotsman July 27 — PICTURES were released yesterday of the UN outpost destroyed by an Israeli attack in Southern Lebanon. They came as Finland identified the 29-year-old naval officer who was one of four observers who died there.
Lieutenant Jarno Makinen, who had been part of the UN monitoring team in the Middle East since November, was killed with three other unarmed UN officers from Canada, China and Austria.
“It is feared that Makinen was killed in the strike on the Khiam observation post on 25 July,” the Finnish statement read, but did not say that Lt Makinen’s body had been found.
Tarja Halonen, the Finnish president whose country holds the European Union presidency, said that there was “no justification” for the attack and demanded “full clarification from Israeli officials”.
The strike was also condemned by other Finnish officials, including Matti Vanhanen, the prime minister, who phoned his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Olmert, demanding an investigation.
Finland has provided more than 43,000 personnel for UN peace missions since the 1950s, and has 14 peacekeepers in the Middle East. Forty-five Finnish soldiers have been killed in on UN duty.
Israel has apologised for the incident, describing it as a mistake, but China was in no mood to let the matter rest at the UN yesterday, warning the United States that its opposition to a statement condemning the attack could have a “negative impact” on UN talks on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The US was blocking a UN Security Council statement on the incident. But the envoys said there was some hope a policy statement would be adopted.
China's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya“This is a serious matter,” China’s UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, said after a private meeting with the US negotiators. “It is an attack on the UN peacekeepers. “If the Security Council cannot send a strong political message supporting our guys on the ground, it will be difficult for people to understand.”
Asked about the negotiations on a resolution on Iran that six nations are conducting, Mr Wang said nearly every delegation in the council was frustrated over the US position. “Definitely this frustration will have its negative impact.”
UN officials had said numerous calls had been made to the Israeli military and its diplomats in New York to protest at repeated firing on the outpost.
≈ Added this info to my diary —
IDF: Rome Gives Us Legitimacy to Forge Ahead In Lebanon ¶ Updated ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
to say no to an investigation. The US, yes us, we are saying no to the investigation. We are saying no to cease fire resolutions. We are saying to Isreal – “Go ahead and bomb, it is okay with us!”
Much as we would like to we cannot escape the fact that we tolerate George Bush as our leader. We do nothing to push him out. We do not protest at his allowing Isreal to bomb Lebanon back to powder.
Yes Hezbollah is a threat, yes it takes two to tango. But Lebanon has been in the process of recovering from its terrible civil war and neither of those parties seem to care about it.
Nor do we or Isreal seem to care about 4 UN observers who were killed by the bombing and seemingly targeted on purpose. If it were not on purpose why then would Isreal and the US block an independent investigation?