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Challenged on Gaza School Bombing
Story, UN Attacks the Press, Confirms Staff Strike
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, February 5 -- Despite
a widespread perception, created in part by the UN, that the civilians
killed
by a June 6 shelling by the Israeli Defense Forces in Jabaliya were
inside a
school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency, the UN has since had to
issue a
"clarification" that the shelling was entirely outside of the school.
Inner City Press on Thursday asked UNRWA's John Ging if he has
re-thought any
of his public statements in the bombing's wake, for example that "those
in the school were all families seeking refuge." Video here,
from Minute
30:31.
Ging responded that he wouldn't change a word he'd
said, and instead
blamed the Globe and Mail newspaper for a "sensationalist headline."
Ging said that "all reputable media" -- he listed the New York Times,
the Jerusalem Post, the Guardian -- had "gotten it right."
But the Jerusalem Post article, for example,
"noted that in two previous reports, the UN had stated that the IDF
attack
had been against the school and not outside the school." Ging's UN
colleague Chris Gunness has accused the Jerusalem Post of misquoting
him.
During the hot-phase of the conflict, Ging and the
UN bemoaned the
absence of international media from the conflict zone. As one wag put
it
Thursday, be careful what you wish for. Beyond the mis-statement in the
UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs January 7 report,
the UN
said nothing as the incident was widely described as a bombing of a UN
school.
In fact, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on January 17
said "Today,
another United Nations school was hit by Israeli Defense Forces. I
condemn in
the strongest terms this outrageous attack which is the third time this
has
happened." This quote is on the UN's own ReliefWeb, here.
Then a quiet "clarification"
in a UN Field Report:
UN's John Ging on the screen, John Holmes in
the seat, reputable media not shown
Clarification:
While correctly reported on 6 January that Israeli shells landed
outside an
UNRWA school in Jabalia, resulting in an initial estimate of 30
fatalities, the
Situation Report of 7 January referred to ‘the shelling of the UNRWA
school in
Jabalia.’ The Humanitarian Coordinator would like to clarify that the
shelling,
and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the
school.
One might have thought, given the controversy,
that Ging would address it in his opening statement to the UN press
corps on Thursday. He did not. Upon questioning, he acknowledged that
the school was not hit, except by
shrapnel, and that the school was not damaged. That was not the
perception, and
from this perspective the Globe and Mail is to be congratulated for
dogged reporting,
not denounced as "unreputable" by the UN. Click here
for a more
recent Globe and Mail story quoting the UN on the disappearance of its
stealth
envoy to Niger, the Canadian Robert Fowler.
In fairness, the UN also mis-lead the press, or
allowed misleading
stories to stand uncorrected, earlier in the conflict when the UN's John
Holmes
equated civilian casualties with only those who were children and women
(of the
latter group, he said that they too might be with Hamas). How ever
begrudgingly, Holmes acknowledged the controversy and amended his
reporting,
without denouncing the media which called him on it. Ging has been
working
hard, but attacking the press, or particular reporters, for zeroing in
on
inconsistencies would put Ging more squarely in the UN spin mold than
has been
the case so far.
Inner City Press also asked Ging about reports of a
strike by UNRWA workers
in the West Bank. Ging confirmed the "industrial action," but denied
that money was shifted to Gaza from the UNRWA West Bank budget, calling
the
staff union leadership ill-informed on this point. He said that now
UNRWA and
the Red Cross can get cash into Gaza, but no one else, including it
seems the
Palestinian Authority. Reportedly, Hamas brings in cash through tunnels
from
Egypt. Ging emphasized the blockade of
"plastic pellets to make plastic bags," and of paper to print UNRWA's
human rights curriculum. The blocking of construction materials,
including even
plastic PVC pipes, seems equally serious. We'll have more on this.
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
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
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[at] innercitypress.com
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