United Nations

UN official criticises Israel over flotilla probe
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
August 24, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel is not co-operating with the UN Human Rights Council's probe of May's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a UN official said today. Juan Carlos Monge said the fact-finding mission is speaking to witnesses and government officials in Turkey and Jordan. But Mr Monge said Israel has not granted the team an invitation. Israel's UN mission said today it was not commenting on the investigation. Israeli commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian activists trying to break the Jewish state's blockade of Gaza. Israel says the soldiers acted in self-defence.

Is Lebanon Finally Integrating Palestinians?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Andrew Lee Butters - August 20, 2010 - 12:00am

The profound significance of this week's decision by the Lebanese government to allow Palestinian refugees to work legally in a number of previously off-limits professions lies in their fate until now. Of all the Palestinians who fled or were chased from their homes in what is now Israel upon the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, those who ended up in Lebanon had more reason than most to rue their fate.

UN hails Lebanese step towards Palestinian refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 19, 2010 - 12:00am

The United Nations on Wednesday hailed a Lebanese decision to lift an employment ban on Palestinian refugees in the country. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA and the International Labor Office (ILO) said in a joint statement distributed to the press that the Lebanese move represents "an important step in the right direction." "This endorsement of the universal right to work by Lebanese legislators is an important breakthrough," added the statement. "It reaffirms Lebanon's commitment to social justice and decent work for all," it stressed.

UN releases Israeli, PA responses to Goldstone; no input from Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
August 19, 2010 - 12:00am

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday released the results of Israeli and Palestinian investigations into alleged war crimes during the conflict in Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009, which did not appear to include any input from Gaza's Hamas rulers.

UN official: Israel should extend freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jordana Horn - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

In a briefing to the Security Council at its meeting Tuesday morning on the Middle East, a senior United Nations official called on Israel to continue the partial moratorium on settlement construction beyond September 26 and to extend it to all settlement activity, as well as to construction in east Jerusalem. “We are nearing a turning point in the efforts to promote direct negotiations,” Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez- Taranco told the Security Council, in his briefing on the situation in the Middle East.

Mavi Marmara inquiry: Denying the obvious
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Gwynne Dyer - August 15, 2010 - 12:00am

The pro-Palestinian activists who said that the flotilla of ships that tried to breach the Israeli blockade and bring aid to the Gaza Strip had purely humanitarian goals were lying, and so are the Israeli officials who blandly insist that the blockade is solely to stop offensive weapons from reaching the Hamas-ruled enclave. But only the Israeli commandos who seized the ships and killed nine people had guns.

As UN Gaza flotilla inquiry opens, a chance for improved Turkey-Israel relations?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Christa Case Bryant - August 11, 2010 - 12:00am

The UN investigation into Israel's Gaza flotilla raid that left 8 Turks and one Turkish-American dead opens today with Turkey insisting that Israel bears full responsibility for the deaths and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak saying a Turkish aid group's attempt to breach the economic blockade of Gaza was a "deliberate provocation." The UN investigation will start with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon meeting with the four-member panel, which includes both an Israeli and a Turkish representative. The panel will investigate the fatal Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid boat.

UN panel on Gaza flotilla incident begins work
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Patrick Worsnip - August 10, 2010 - 12:00am

The United Nations sought to head off any potential clash with Israel over a U.N. inquiry into a deadly Israeli assault on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, as a panel began work on the task on Tuesday. A U.N. statement on an inaugural meeting between the four-man team and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that the inquiry was "not designed to determine individual criminal responsibility." Instead it would "examine and identify the facts, circumstances and the context of the incident."

Inquiry shouldn’t let Israel off the hook
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
August 9, 2010 - 12:00am

What are the chances that Israel will be held accountable for the fatal raid on the Gaza aid flotilla in May? If history is any precedent, it is difficult to be optimistic. Last week, the United Nations announced that a panel would investigate the attack, an investigation in which Israel has since agreed to participate.

Israel Fights Isolation With New Measures
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Gal Beckerman - August 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel is taking significant new steps to relieve its international isolation following the fatal raid on a humanitarian flotilla and the accusatory Goldstone Report.

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