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At
UN, Peres and Press Spar,
UNRWA Cash Question Remain
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, May 6 --
The day after the UN's summary report on Gaza was
given to the Security Council and leaked,
Israeli President Shimon Peres came
to meet with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and then the Press. He
slammed the
report for not mentioning the rockets fired by Hamas; he said Israel
respects
and works well with the United Nations.
Inner City Press asked about the UN Relief and Works
Agency's repeated
complaint
that Israeli does not allow them to bring cash into the Gaza Strip,
and also that taxes and fees are imposed on them contrary to
international law.
Video here,
from Minute 9:43.
President
Peres responded that "I don't
begin to understand the question. If Hamas didn't fire, there would not
be a
single cartridge shot from Israel."
Inner City Press followed up, emphasizing that the
question was about
access to cash by and taxing of UNRWA. "We support UNRWA all the
time," Peres answered.
At the UN's noon media briefing minutes later, Inner
City Press asked
Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson if Ban had raised either issue in his meet
with
Peres. "Not in this meeting," the spokesperson replied. Video here,
from Minute 29:03.
UN's Ban and Peres, press pit and UNRWA
complaints not shown
Could she provide an update from UNRWA on the issues of cash
and taxes? She said she would, and we will report on it upon receipt.
Immediately following Peres' media availability at
the stakeout, an Al
Jazeera reporter who had posed a number of questions was asked to show
his UN
identification card. He took umbrage, asserting that he was only being
asked
because of his questioning of Peres.
Others
pointed at the heavy presence of UN
and Israeli security officers at the stakeout, including in the "pit"
with the journalists. The one question asked in Hebrew was not about
Gaza or
the UN report, but rather about the nuclear non proliferation treaty.
Inner
City Press posed the same question to Rose Gottemoeller, the
US representative to the NPT meeting on which we intend to report soon.
Watch this site.
Click here
for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters
footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
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
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
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Other,
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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