UN Blackmailed By Arab States... Is the UN Anti-Israel?

[shaykh]

Ban-Ki Moon had his hands tied here...point is that funding of the UN determines how selective concern is regarding human rights...

The Saudis threatened to withdraw funding for UN projects including those related to Palestinians if they did not get what they want...

Kind of explains the UN obsession with Israel...lol in 2016 actually the UN Status of Women Report criticised just one nation and that was Israel...

In 2016 the UN Human Rights Council adopted 9 resolutions...with 5 of them being against Israel...lol Syria got 1...

The problem with this and this is relevant to Palestinian defenders is that it closes the potential for discussion...it provides the Israelis a reason to not engage...ie the system is corrupt so there is no discussion to be had...

It allows Netanyahu to adopt the 'why us?' attitude...it allows a situation where they can avoid facing the issues and discuss the bias instead...

The United Nations Secretary General excised the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen from an annual UN register of children’s rights violators, after the middle-eastern country and its coalition partners threatened to cut off crucial funding to the world body.

Ban Ki-Moon said the removal of Saudi Arabia from the list was “one of the most painful and difficult decisions” he has had to make as Secretary General, describing the pressure the Arab nation had exerted on the UN as “unacceptable”.

His admission came after the coalition – which comprises the Saudis, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan – was cut from the appendix of the UN’s annual Children and Armed Conflict report, to the dismay of human rights groups.

The appendix lists those countries that have violated children’s rights over the preceding 12 months. UN Investigators found that the Saudi coalition was to blame for the deaths of more than half of the 510 children killed in the conflict in Yemen last year.

The Arab coalition began its campaign in Yemen in March 2015, against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and supporters of the country’s former President, Ali Abdullah Saleh. The UN claims around 6,000 people have died in the conflict to date.

Mr Ban suggested Saudi Arabia, which is one of the biggest donors to the international organisation’s humanitarian efforts, had threatened to cancel its funding to the UN unless it was removed from the list of rights violators.

The Saudis pushed back against the accusations. “We did not use threats or intimidation and we did not talk about funding,” the kingdom’s UN ambassador, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, told reporters, adding: “It is not in our style, it is not in our genes, it is not in our culture to use threats and intimidation. We have the greatest respect for the United Nations institution.”

The international advocacy group, Human Rights Watch, said in an open letter to the Secretary General that it was “shocked” by the decision to cut Saudi Arabia from the reprort’s “list of shame”. But Mr Ban said he was forced to consider “the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously if, as was suggested to me, countries would defund many UN programs.”

Without naming Saudi Arabia specifically, Mr Ban said children in “Palestine, South Sudan, Yemen and so many other places” stood to be affected if such programmes had to be cut. “It is unacceptable for member states to exert undue pressure,” he went on. “Scrutiny is a natural and necessary part of the work of the United Nations.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...ts-report-under-undue-financial-a7073696.html

 

[Yossarian]

Two points.
1. The UN General Assembly motions are useless and meaningless. Only the Security Council decisions have any meaning - and the USA veto's anything critical of Israel. And has done so for the last 40 odd years, bar the recent vote regarding expansion of the illegal settlements and even then it was an abstention and not a vote in favour of the resolution - and even then it had more to do with Obama being exasperated with Netanyahu than going against Israel.

2. The US contributes the largest amount towards the UN budget. And has threatened numerous times to blackmail the UN by withholding or reducing it's contributions if any measures are taken that go against the interests of Israel.

Ted Cruz: No US funding for UN until Israel vote 'reversed'

"No US $ for UN until reversed," he added. That comment suggests that Cruz has made his mind up since Friday, when he said he looked forward to working with Sen. Lindsey Graham and President-elect Trump "to significantly reduce or even eliminate U.S. funding of the United Nations, and also to seriously reconsider financial support for the nations that supported this resolution."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/t...un-until-israel-vote-reversed/article/2610351

And not just recently:

US pulls Unesco funding after Palestine is granted full membership

The United States has cut off funds to Unesco as a punitive action after the Palestinian Authority was accepted into the UN agency as a full member in defiance of American, Israeli and European pressure.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/31/unesco-backs-palestinian-membership

Anyone who believes that the US will ever allow any serious and meaningful UN actions against Israel, other than meaningless General Assembly hot air resolutions, must be living in cuckoo land.

 

[shaykh]

Two points.
1. The UN General Assembly motions are useless and meaningless. Only the Security Council decisions have any meaning - and the USA veto's anything critical of Israel. And has done so for the last 40 odd years, bar the recent vote regarding expansion of the illegal settlements and even then it was an abstention and not a vote in favour of the resolution - and even then it had more to do with Obama being exasperated with Netanyahu than going against Israel.

2. The US contributes the largest amount towards the UN budget. And has threatened numerous times to blackmail the UN by withholding or reducing it's contributions if any measures are taken that go against the interests of Israel.



And not just recently:


Anyone who believes that the US will ever allow any serious and meaningful UN actions against Israel, other than meaningless General Assembly hot air resolutions, must be living in cuckoo land.

I agree with you on the US exerting its influence to prevent resolutions from being brought to fruition...this is why this recent one was such a surprise with the US not exercising their veto...

The point however still remains that there is a disproportionate amount of attention placed on Israel...the fact that Ban Ki-Moon has stated that publicly shows that...as does the evidence of neglect elsewhere...

The fact that the UN praised Sudan during Darfur and the Sri Lankan government shows that...

That the UN is such a biased organisation actually prevents changes being made...the settlements are actually quite a contentious issue in Israel...there is far from uniform opinion on this...but what there is uniform opinion on is the fact that the processes in the UN are biased and impartial...and that is a fair claim...and the consequence is it actually works in the favour of the Israeli right...

 

[Yossarian]

I agree with you on the US exerting its influence to prevent resolutions from being brought to fruition...this is why this recent one was such a surprise with the US not exercising their veto...

The point however still remains that there is a disproportionate amount of attention placed on Israel...the fact that Ban Ki-Moon has stated that publicly shows that...as does the evidence of neglect elsewhere...

The fact that the UN praised Sudan during Darfur and the Sri Lankan government shows that...

That the UN is such a biased organisation actually prevents changes being made...the settlements are actually quite a contentious issue in Israel...there is far from uniform opinion on this...but what there is uniform opinion on is the fact that the processes in the UN are biased and impartial...and that is a fair claim...and the consequence is it actually works in the favour of the Israeli right...

Ban Ki-Moon has to be one of the worst UN Secretary-General's since it's inception. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he asked permission from his hosts (ie where the UN is based) every time he needed to go the bathroom.