ICP
Asks Israel's
Danon If
UNESCO Chief
Bokova's
Letter Should
Be Public
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 26 --
When Israel's
Permanent
Representative
Danny Danon
came to the UN
Security
Council
stakeout on
January 26,
Inner City
Press asked
him a
cross-cutting
question:
should UNESCO
chief Irina
Bokova make
public her
reported
letter to
Iran?
Danon's
answer, video
here, focused
more on other
UN system
officials
making their
positions
known. But on
this and other
issues, Inner
City Press and
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access believe
that UN system
documents
should be made
public. See here
and here
for more.
Back on
October 16,
2015 before
the emergency
Palestine
meeting of the
UN Security
Council,
began, Danon
came to
address the
press at the
stakeout, with
a tripod easel
like his
predecessor
Ron Prosor.
Inner City
Press
broadcast the
easel via
Periscope, and
asked Danon
about what's
said in the
Security
Council about
an expanded
Quartet
helping the
situation.
Danon replied
that the
solution is
direct
negotiations,
with no
preconditions.
Before
Inner City
Press'
question,
another
reporter posed
his, complete
with
counter-prop,
a photo on an
i-Pad. (Inner
City Press
broadcast this
too on
Periscope.)
The Israeli
Mission,
unlike some
others, didn't
try to insist
that the
question had
to go to the
journalist
they'd chosen:
the Free UN
Coalition for
Access favors
this allowing
of some
openness in
stakeout,
unlike the
censoring
control
asserted by,
for example,
UN
Peacekeeping
boss Herve
Ladsous and
some missions.
Danon, it
emerges, did
not speak
inside the
Security
Council; he
has yet to
hand his
credentials to
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon (who
is, once
again,
traveling,
this time in
Italy); he
said he will
do so on
Wednesday of
next week.
Outside
the Security
Council at the
stakeout Danon
said, “Whoever
avoids direct
negotiations
is looking for
an escape
hatch, and
Abbas’s
favorite kind
of escape, is
to spread
slanderous
lies about the
situation on
the Temple
Mount,
especially
about the
status quo.
However, only
2 weeks ago
Prime Minister
Netanyahu
stood here at
the UN and
repeated his
commitment
once again to
maintaining
the status
quo. Let me
make it clear.
Israel will
not agree to
any
international
presence on
the Temple
Mount. Any
such
intervention
would violate
the decades
long status
quo.”
After the
speeches in
the Council
Chamber, Inner
City Press
asked
Palestine's
Permanent
Observer Riyad
Mansour about
an
international
protection
presence. He
replied that
back in 1994
in UNSC
Resolution
904, some 37
Scandinavian
observers were
deployed and
remain in
Hebron, so why
not now? Why
not indeed.
Jordan's Dina
Kawar seemed
to say that
such an
international
force is not
envisioned at
this point.
Oman's
representative,
as head of the
Arab Group,
said work
would
continue. One
wanted to ask
her also about
Oman's work on
the conflict
in Yemen, but
it was not the
time.
Using
the easel that
he brought,
Danon said,
“On Monday,
a
Palestinian
boy attacked
an Israeli boy
who was riding
his bike,
stabbing him
no less than
15 times. Let
me repeat: 15
times! The
victim is
still
hospitalized
in critical
condition. Ask
yourselves,
why would a
13-year-old
boy decide to
go on a
stabbing spree
and try to
take another
boy’s life?
The answer is
that such acts
of terror do
not occur in a
vacuum. When a
Palestinian
child turns on
a TV, he
doesn’t see
Barney or
Donald Duck,
he sees
murderers
portrayed as
heroes. When
he opens a
textbook, he
doesn’t learn
about math and
science, he’s
being taught
to hate.”
Then
Danon unveiled
a picture or
cartoon,
knives at a
body, widely
photographed.
“This
picture you
see here is an
example of the
kind of
messages that
Palestinian
children are
being exposed
to day in and
day out. The
picture gives
children
elaborate
instructions
on how to stab
a Jew. We talk
about a lot
about
incitement-
here you see
what
Palestinian
incitement
looks like.
This picture
is what is
being taught
in middle
schools!
Instead of
educating
about peace
and tolerance,
the
Palestinian
leadership is
brainwashing
children with
incitement and
hate,” Danon
continued.
The UN
itself
denounced
social media,
and got asked
about its own,
or UNRWA
staff's, use
of social
media; UN
deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
said the UN
reviews even
its staff's
retweets.
Really? We'll
have more on
this. Follow @innercitypressFollow @FUNCA_info
, 
