|
For UN, Ban's Meeting with Israel Was "Purely a Courtesy
Call" In Run-Up to Air Strikes
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 27 -- In the run-up to
today's Israeli air strikes on Gaza, Israel's UN Ambassador Gabriela
Shalev on December
23 met with Ban Ki-moon. Inner City Press asked Ban's Deputy
Spokesperson Marie
Okabe, at that day's noon briefing, what the meeting had been about. That the expiration of the cease fire in Gaza
would have been discussed seemed obvious. The question was intended to
glean
whether any statement as to timing had been made by the Israeli
Ambassador. "We'll
get you a readout," Ms. Okabe said. Video here.
Later on
December 23, Ban's Spokesperson's Office sent Inner City Press the
following:
From: unspokesperson-donotreply
[at] un.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 12/23/2008 3:31:10 P.M.
Eastern Standard Time
Subj: Your question at noon
Regarding the Secretary-General's
meeting with the Israeli Permanent Representative today, it was purely
a
courtesy call.
"Purely a courtesy
call"? That is the phrase used when
diplomats who are leaving the UN visit the 38th floor for a final photo
opportunity with the Secretary-General. [The phrase was even inserted
into the UN's
transcript, here, at least as of December 26.]
On
December 26, Inner City Press asked a senior UN official who spoke on
condition
of anonymity, given the culture of the 38th floor, why Ban's
Spokesperson's
Office would have issued such a summary. "It doesn't help us," the
official answered with exasperation. "In part it's that the
Spokesperson
and her office are not in the loop about what's going on in the UN,
particularly on the thirty-eighth floor. Also they seem to run scared,
afraid
to say the wrong thing. But this 'courtesy call' phrase is laughable,
and makes
us look laughable."
Hours
later, when the deadly air strikes began, nobody was laughing.
UN's Ban with Israel's Tzipi Livni last
month: just another courtesy call?
Ban issued,
through his Spokesperson's Office, a three-paragraph canned statement:
From: unspokesperson-donotreply
[at] un.org
Sent: 12/27/2008 10:51:53 A.M.
Eastern Standard Time
Subj: URGENT: UN's Ban Ki-moon on
Gaza and southern Israel
Statement attributable to the
Spokesperson for the Secretary-General
on the situation in Gaza and
southern Israel
The Secretary-General is deeply
alarmed by today’s heavy violence and bloodshed in Gaza, and the
continuation
of violence in southern Israel. He appeals for an immediate
halt
to all violence.
While recognizing Israel's
security concerns regarding the continued firing of rockets from Gaza,
he
firmly reiterates Israel's obligation to uphold international
humanitarian and
human rights law and condemns excessive use of force leading to the
killing and
injuring of civilians. He condemns the ongoing rocket attacks by
Palestinian
militants and is deeply distressed that repeated calls on Hamas for
these
attacks to end have gone unheeded.
The Secretary-General reiterates
his previous calls for humanitarian
supplies to be allowed into Gaza to aid the distressed civilian
population. He
is making immediate contact with regional and international leaders,
including
Quartet principals, in an effort to bring a swift end to the violence. New York, 27 December 2008
One wag asked if
these immediate contacts
were, by the same logic, "courtesy calls"?
The
UN General Assembly
President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, with whom Israel's Ambassador
Gabriela
Shalev cancelled
a scheduled meeting this month after d'Escoto in essence
called her a liar, had left New York for Nicaragua on Christmas
Eve, just after
the General
Assembly after an all-night session at 8 a.m. approved UN budget
resolution, including one backed by the Ambassadors of Syria,
Lebanon and Egypt
which called
for a re-thinking and reigning in of the mandate of controversial
UN envoy Terje Roed Larsen.
Asked by
Inner City Press for a response to that
critique by member states, Ban's Spokesperson's office also had no
comment,
click here
for that.
We've
heard of quiet diplomacy, but mere "courtesy
calls" and no-comments as war is heating up is something new.
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
|
