UN-neutral Getting Bitten by the Dog it Feeds

Summarizing recent weeks of the Hamas-UN battle
Feb. 9, 2009

If nothing else positive, and there was little positive, the Gaza war has brought to light several inconsistencies, or shall I say ‘UN-consistencies,’ when it comes to the United Nations and its dealings with Hamas, Israel and the Palestinians.

First, here are some incidents that have occurred in recent weeks:

1. When Israelis saved Arab students trapped in a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) school in East Jerusalem, they encountered pictures depicting the IDF as murderers. Several students fell into a six-foot deep hole when a floor in the school collapsed on Feb. 1. Israeli responders found drawings depicting Israeli soldiers at the Gaza border shooting Palestinians at them at point blank range while they tried to get food. Another picture, drawn by a student, showed an Arab shot to death by an Israeli soldier.

2. The United Nations agency in charged of a school in Gaza where dozens of civilians were killed by Israeli mortar fire in Operation Cast Lead has admitted to employing terrorists to work at its Palestinian schools in the past, has no system in place to keep members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad off its payroll and provides textbooks to children that contain hate speech and other incendiary material against Israel and Jews.

3. UNRWA brought the media to watch while it tried to pass unapproved goods through the Gaza border Tuesday, Feb. 3. The Israeli army, as expected, turned away the unappoved trucks then slammed UNRWA for trying to pass through the unkosher good and bringing the media to film Israel’s rejection of the trucks. Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Spokesman Maj. Peter Lerner said the incident was a “regretful provocation. ... UNRWA receives preferential treatment at the crossings, and today alone 50 of its trucks were allowed in.”

Just two days later, however, Hamas put on its own show albeit not for the cameras. Hamas turned against its complicit ally, the UN, and twice in one week (Feb. 3 and 5) commandeered hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid from UNRWA. The UN actually ceased shipping aid over the border until Hamas returns the goods.

Perhaps the UN is beginning to see the light. Or at least one ray. In another first, it announced this week it will probe Hamas’ use of children as human shields during the war, according to The Jerusalem Post.

“It is still very difficult for us to say that it was actually happening and we still need to conduct a full investigation into what exactly took place... but we are not denying that it happened; it is absolutely possible that Hamas was using its civilians as human shields,” said UN special representative for children and armed conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy.

A small leap for morality, but a huge step in the right direction for the UN nonetheless.

Also, in a report released last week, a former legal official with UNRWA accused the organization of politicizing the Palestinian refugee issue. James Lindsay, UNRWA’s legal advisor from 2002 until 2007, said the agency should conduct background checks so as not to hire terrorist organization members anymore; help those who wish to move out of refugee camps by expanding loans; and shift from a “status-based” system of aid designated for refugees to a “needs-based” system.

Andrew Whitley, director of the UNRWA representative office at UN headquarters, slammed the report and immediately did what the report lambasted the UN for: politicizing the situation.

“Someone reading this paper with no background would assume that the Israeli government was a benign actor.,” he said. “No mention is made of the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”

But NGOs are notoriously biased against Israel. A Jerusalem-based watchdog, NGO Monitor, documented more than 500 statements by some 50 NGOs just in one month during the recent fighting in Gaza.

“These statements are characterized by overwhelming condemnation of Israel, devoting minimal attention to Israeli human rights and casualties,” the organization reported. “These same groups were markedly hesitant to condemn the widespread and illegal use of human shields by Hamas. ”

A Palestinian from Gaza blamed Hamas for the humanitarian crisis in the Strip. Nuaf Atar, a Fatah operative captured during the operation, accused Hamas government officials of controlling humanitarian aid Israel allowed in and selling it instead of distributing it for free, as was intended. But Israel continues to get blamed by the NGOs and the international community, which clamors for it to open the borders for a more free flow of goods. Goods that never make it to the people who need them.

NGO Monitor Executive Director Gerald Steinberg summed it up best: “The consistent attempt to demonize Israel in the media and in the courts while turning a blind eye to the illegal activities of Hamas demonstrates that many human rights groups have lost their moral compass.”