Soccer Dad

Rocket or Stretcher?

Neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post seems much bothered by the controversial video apparently showing a man tossing a missile into a UN vehicle. In today's NY Times we have this:

Meanwhile, Israel and a United Nations refugee agency are feuding over video taken by an Israeli drone hovering over Jabaliya.

The grainy, black-and white images, which have appeared on Israeli television, show a man comfortably carrying a long, thin object as he walks to the back of a United Nations ambulance. He then casually tosses the object into the vehicle.

Israel said that the man was carrying a Qassam rocket, and that it would formally complain to the United Nations in New York.

But Peter Hansen, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said he was convinced the object was just a folded stretcher.

"While the quality of the video clip is poor, its analysis shows beyond the shadow of a doubt that the object carried and thrown into the vehicle cannot be a Qassam rocket," Mr. Hansen said in a statement.

Mr. Hansen said a rocket, which is made of metal, would be far to heavy for a man to carry easily with one arm. However, the Israeli military asserts that smaller rockets weigh as little as 11 pounds, and can be handled in such a fashion.

The dispute is the latest episode in a long-running feud between Israel and the United Nations agency.

"Long running feud?" No this goes to the legitimacy of the UN. And frankly the record doesn't look too good on the Israel front. Four years ago UN soldiers stood by as three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and killed across the UN approved border. The UN had video of the kidnaping and denied that it had it. Finally it allowed Israeli officials to view the video, but only after they hid the identities of the members of Hezbollah. In a "feud" between a member state and a terrorist organization, the UN wouldn't want to take sides.
(More on the UNWRA's record later.)
Here's the Washington Post from Saturday's paper

Three days of fighting have provided several examples of abuses of the local population by combatants on both sides.

The military gave Israeli television stations video footage from a remotely piloted aircraft that it said showed a vehicle marked "U.N." being used to transport Qassam rockets. Meir, the Foreign Ministry official, called the use of a such a vehicle attacks "horrendous."

Peter Hansen, who heads the Gaza offices of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which administers Palestinian refugee camps, said he had not seen the film and had "grave difficulty" believing his agency's workers had helped transport rockets.

Hansen said he had received reports from the Jabalya camp that Israeli forces took over three schools run by his agency. When the soldiers withdrew from the schools, he said, residents reported that Palestinian guerrillas took their places. Hansen said both sides' abuse of the schools was "equally serious."

It appears that the Washington Post doesn't want to take sides either. Abuses on both sides? One is a response to the other. On one side a terrorist organization goes about hiding arms to attack civilians in (non-occupied) territory; on the other is the army that seeks to eradicate that enemy who is hiding among civilians. Those are abuses on both sides. Of course Molly Moore's failure to investigate the Israel charges further allows her to report later:

Hassanin said Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on ambulances and medical workers attempting to remove the dead and wounded. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the defense forces have received no reports of ambulances being fired upon.

If she had bothered to spend time investigating Israel's charges, maybe this charge about Israeli troops firing on ambulances would be undestandable. If Israel's enemies misuse supposedly neutral vehicles, structures and personnel, they should have no protection. (One of the recent Israeli soldiers killed was a medic. Someone, who would have international protections in any other conflict. Of course since the Mogen Dovid Adom is not sanctioned by the antisemitic International Committee of the Red Cross, he was not legally protected. That isn't an issue tha Moore addresses either. Surprise.)
Since neither the Washington Post nor New York Times much care about the UN's documented active assault on Israel, let's provide a list:
From Arutz-7:

Israel has documented UN involvement in past attacks perpetrated by Hamas as well as by Hizbullah. Most significantly, a UN vehicle was used in October 2000 to abduct IDF soldiers from Israel's northern border, leading to the deaths of three soldiers. Other attacks have involved UN vehicles assigned to Arabs living in PLO-controlled areas.

Arnold Beichman, scholar and research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, wrote in the Washington Times in May 2002, "UNIFIL, the U.N. force stationed on the Israel-Lebanon border, hid a videotape of Israeli soldiers being abducted by Hizbullah in October 2000. After finally admitting to having the tape, the U.N. would only show an edited version (in which Hezbollah faces were hidden) to the Israeli government. They claimed they needed to maintain neutrality between a member state and a terrorist group."

(Read the whole thing.)
Israelly Cool has a bit more (courtesy of Israel's MFA):Hansen has not provided one example of another false allegation made by Israel against the UN. In contrast, the IDF has on many occasions found proof of UNRWA ambulances being used for terror, including the following:
In a document seized during Operation Defensive Shield, it was noted that weapons were concealed in the floor of an ambulance.
In an another document it is noted that the PLO Arab general intelligence service used an ambulance to transfer a suspect from Husan to Bethlehem.
On March 27, 2002 IDF forces arrested Islam Jibril, a Tanzim operative at a checkpoint near Ramallah. Jibril, born 1971, a resident of the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, worked as an ambulance driver in the Palestinian Red Crescent. Jibril was arrested while driving a Red Crescent ambulance containing an explosive belt and explosive devices. During his investigation Jiblril confessed that the bombs were handed to him in Nablus by Mahmud Titi, a senior Tanzim operative in the Samaria area who was killed by security forces. The explosive belt was hidden underneath a stretch carrying a sick Palestinian boy aside his family members.
Investigation has revealed that during March 2002 several PLO Arab terrorists in Ramallah were using ambulances in order to move from one spot to another. The terrorists were wearing medical uniforms and some of them used city hospitals as a hiding place.
(Again read the whole thing!)
UPDATE: For the video of the incident go here and click on the relevant link.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at October 4, 2004 1:59 AM