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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Free Gaza group: Zionists ran concentration camps
2012-10-05
Group's head Tweets: “Zionists operated the concentration camps and helped murder millions of innocent Jews.”

The US head of The Free Gaza Movement, a pro-Palestinian group, unleashed a wave of criticism over the last several days after asserting on Twitter that Zionists ran concentration camps and murdered Jews.

Greta Berlin, the American co-founder of the hardcore anti-Israel group, tweeted on September 30, “Zionists operated the concentration camps and helped murder millions of innocent Jews.”

Berlin’s Tweet blaming Zionists for the Holocaust caught the eye of Avi Mayer, who oversees social media with the Jewish Agency for Israel. Mayer was the first to draw attention to Berlin on his tweeter feed, writing ”-- -- the folks behind the #Gaza flotilla -- reveal themselves to be the lowest anti-Semites.”

Mayer documented the chronology of Berlin’s attacks on Jews and Israel, as well as the Holocaust revisionism of the Free Gaza group, on a Storify blog.

Mayer wrote, "The Free Gaza Movement is the key actor behind the successive flotillas that have sought to violate the maritime closure around Gaza in support of Hamas. It is chaired by Huwaida Arraf, who also heads the International Solidarity Movement (and has endorsed the use of violence against Israel), and its Board of Advisors includes such luminaries as Naomi Klein, Peter Hansen, and Jenny Tonge.”

He continued “It has been endorsed by a range of organizations and individuals, including Desmond Tutu, Jewish Voice for Peace, Code Pink, the Palestine Red Crescent Society, the Rachel Corrie Foundation, George Galloway, and Neturei Karta International.”

Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, told The Jerusalem Post in a Thursday email, “The NGO activists in the so-called 'free Gaza' campaign have always reflected obsessive, irrational and immoral characteristics, and the revelation of links to crude antisemitism provides additional evidence. The members of organizations like the ISM [International Solidarity Movement] and others behind free Gaza, that lead the political war to demonize Israel and give support to terror groups, have been unmasked in an entirely unambiguous manner. Their facade of human rights and humanitarian aid, which was never supported by had any tangible evidence, has completely disintegrated."

According to an article in Canada’s National Post, Berlin said her tweet was meant for her private Facebook account and was mistakenly sent to the Free Gaza Twitter feed. The Canadian daily reported that a Tweet from Free Gaza quoted her as saying, “I shared it without watching it. I am sorry that I just sent it forward without looking at it. It won’t happen again.”

Berlin linked her Tweet to a video ostensibly from conspiracy theorist Eustace Mullins, who propagates the views that Jews are responsible for the Shoah and are admirers of Hitler.

Mayer wrote that “This video, endorsed and promoted by @FreeGazaOrg, claims Jews want to erect a statue of Hitler in Israel to thank him” and the person speaking in the video “appears to be the late anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist Eustace Mullins.”

Berlin and her organization, the Free Gaza Movement, are linked to radical Islamist organizations and seek, according to critics, to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist. Berlin is currently on a book tour in Canada.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Pull the plug on the UNRWA Paleo Enabling Trough
2006-03-15
From Jewish World Review online.
By Jonathan Tobin

Halting aid to the P.A. means nothing if funds shift to the ‘humanitarian’ front

The current debate over a cutoff of aid to the Palestinian Authority is a classic case of good news and bad news coming together in the same package.
Like a flaming paper bag of poo on your doorstep.
The good news is that the United States appears to be holding firm on its refusal to keep money flowing to the P.A. once the recently elected Hamas terrorists are in charge.
We will need vigilance on this one to keep State from blowing it or whimping out.
Though many thought Washington would quickly fold on this issue, the administration is sticking to its hard line against sending a cent to Hamas. And Congress is poised to enact aid restrictions that may act as a break on any State Department impulse to weaken on the issue.
Good. At least Congress is doing something right. Mark that on the calendar.
But along with this comes the bad news. The United States and the European Union (which is also considering an aid cutoff to the P.A.) will be diverting a lot of the money that supported the P.A. kleptocracy to humanitarian aid. That way, it is reasoned, innocent Palestinians won't be forced to suffer from the crimes of their new masters.
Innocent Paleos need to suffer from the crimes of their masters and the decisions that they make. It is Cause meet Effect 101. It is the ONLY WAY that they have a chance to learn. So far, there are NO consequences for their actions, other than some occasional hellfires taking out the moron leadership.
That rationale sounds compassionate and logical. The only problem is that the humanitarian group that will receive the lion's share of the aid is one of the most thoroughly politicized and terrorist-infiltrated organizations in the world: the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
Maybe Congress needs to examine the purse strings to the UNRWA, like they are doing with State.
For 56 years, UNRWA has been the symbol of the world's double standard about the war on Israel by the Arab world.
While the United Nations deals with the rest of the world's refugees with a single agency — the U.N. High Commission for Refugees — the Palestinian refugees have their very own agency — UNRWA — with a particular mission.
Pretty good scam so far. Let the UN finance your war against Israel. PT Barnum would be proud
Unfortunately, unlike virtually every other refugee aid group (including those that dealt with the hundreds of thousands of Jews who fled Arab lands in the aftermath of Israel's independence), UNRWA's primary mission has never been to help the Palestinians deal with the reality of the post-1948 world. Resettling the Palestinians wasn't the point. UNRWA exists to keep the Palestinians alive exactly where they are, so they can serve as justification for continued conflict with Israel.

A TERROR STRONGHOLD
As detailed in a new Jewish Telegraphic Agency series of reports on the topic, UNRWA's record is one of complicity not only with the political ends of the Palestinian movement, but with its violent tactics as well.
Many of UNRWA's employees are members not only of mainstream Palestinian terror factions such as Fatah, but of the Islamist Hamas group as well. UNRWA suffered a major embarrassment when its former director, the Norwegian bureaucrat Peter Hansen, admitted as much two years ago, saying it was no big deal. Indeed, in the recent Palestinian election, a number of UNRWA workers were Hamas parliamentary candidates.
Good offices be damned! We will support losers, terrorists, and other ne'erdowells.
Of course, why should Hansen — who helped spread the lie that Israeli forces had committed a massacre of civilians in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002 — worry about terrorist infiltration?
The man lied not only about the casualties of Jenin, in which Hamas and Fatah gunmen fought pitched battles against Israelis who were seeking to destroy terror bases after Palestinian suicide bombings, but also told tales about the fact that this and other UNRWA camps were, in fact, longstanding U.N.-subsidized strongholds of Palestinian terror groups.
Hansen and UNRWA have used the prestige of their "humanitarian" perch to routinely bash Israel for its attacks on the camps, but almost never mention the fact that Israel is reacting to Palestinian terror. But again, this is because the U.N. has always turned a blind eye to the fact that the camps under its jurisdiction were the places where terrorist atrocities are planned and launched.
I can't see yuuuu...I can't hear yuuuu.....lalalalalalalala!
UNRWA employees have used its facilities to shield terrorists from Israel, and even used its ambulances to transport both the killers and the weapons. Hamas also operates its new television station from the relative safety of a mosque in the UNRWA Jabalya camp.
In dire need of and EMP burst to blow the electronics and transmitter of hate.
And if nothing else serves to alert the world to the reality of the UNRWA camps, the steady toll of Palestinian casualties from "work accidents" [As documented in detail on the Rantburg News Network.] — mishaps with explosives during the manufacture of terrorist bombs — at these places ought to pierce the illusions of even the most gullible foreign observers.
But not all, not even by a long shot!
COMPLETE OVERHAUL NEEDED
What should the United States do about this? Let's start with the fact that the plentiful cash that flows from the United States Treasury to UNRWA (30 percent of the agency's $400 million budget comes courtesy of American taxpayers) is actually a violation of U.S. law. The U.S. Foreign Assistance Act requires UNRWA to assure that American money does not go to terrorists. That is an assurance that UNRWA cannot credibly give.
Hell, requesting the info from UNRWA and reviewing it could be a process that could take geologic time, with all the back and forth action. A slow, deliberate bureaucracy is our friend in this fight. We do not say no, we just review it until all of our bureaucrats die of natural causes.
Superficial reforms of the group won't work. Given the almost complete infiltration of UNRWA's bureaucracy by terrorist supporters, nothing short of a complete overhaul will do.
Correction: nothing short of complete dismantling will do. There. That reads better. Jeeze, I'm cynical......
Can the plug be pulled on UNRWA? Given the current pressure on the Bush administration to mend fences with the Arab world, it's unlikely. But if this cause gets a bipartisan push from Congress, it might help the White House focus on the way the agency is spending our money on reinforcing terrorist strongholds. Congress must follow up its legislation on aid to the P.A. with further hearings and action to halt subsidies to UNRWA.
Now there is something useful to do for Congress.
Sadly, it may take another Palestinian terror offensive — in which UNRWA camps will again serve as bases for suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks on Israeli civilians — to remind the world of the "humanitarian" fraud it's been subsidizing. Even then, the Palestinian propaganda machine, of which UNRWA is an integral part, will do its utmost to prevent the truth from being heard.
The mainstream world will ignore it, and that is the sad, tragic truth. Much of the world thinks that Israel is the problem, and that the Israelis are expendable.
But Americans have no excuse for continuing to be complicit in this deception. We — the funders of this half-century-old U.N. fiasco — must face up to the fact that this monster must be decapitated, and then rebuilt as a genuine humanitarian group.
Decapitate the monster, then wait for the second task for some concrete sign of commitment from the Paleos.
That may seem like an impossible task. But if the pain and grief that UNRWA helps inflict on the region is to be stopped, both the White House and Congress must stop buying into the myth of UNRWA's lies.
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International-UN-NGOs
Unrwa commissioner general pays price for support of Palestinians
2005-02-25
Palestinian sources revealed Thursday that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) had retired Commissioner General Peter Hansen after having reached the legal retirement age, despite that Hansen's term was widely expected to be extended. Although Hansen was reportedly surprised by Unrwa's sudden decision, he will abide by the agency's instructions and retire in March after nine years of service.

According to the sources, Hansen was paying the price for his criticism of Israeli attacks in the Palestinian territories. Hansen has repeatedly denounced Israeli policy and urged the international community to stop Israel's aggression and help the Palestinian people rebuild their country. In a meeting with a delegation from the Palestinian Popular Committees in Lebanon at the Unrwa offices in Beirut, Hansen indirectly attributed the ending of his term to international pressure by "some" donor and state members - hinting at the United States - about his stands in support of Palestinian rights. Hansen said that the U.S. Congress had finally tilted the scales of balance after he refused to comply with their advice to refrain from condemning Israeli policy at a time when representatives of European states wanted to extend his term.
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International-UN-NGOs
UNRWA: Palestinians react to occupation
2005-02-09
The outgoing commissioner general of UNRWA, Peter Hansen, has warned of picturing the Palestinians as evildoers and warned that "Israeli" democracy had its limits. Hansen, who is Danish, said that "terrorism" does not emanate from nothing and Palestinians only react to occupation that could take place in any country. He told a Danish newspaper that no one could say that the "Israeli Arabs" were enjoying full rights similar to the "Israeli Jews".

The commissioner, whose tenure was not renewed on the part of the UN secretary general Kofi Annan due to USA and Zionist pressures, said that democracy was only enjoyed by the Jewish people in "Israel". Hansen is to end his term in office by 13th March after nine years of leading the Agency.
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International-UN-NGOs
Annan drops UNRWA head after US and Israeli campaign
2005-01-21
Secretary-General Kofi Annan decided not to reappoint the head of the UN relief agency for Palestinians because of a long campaign against him by Israel and the United States, UN officials said on Wednesday. Peter Hansen, a Dane, has led the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) since February 1996 and had signaled he was willing to serve a fourth three-year term at its helm. But the United States, the program's biggest single donor and one of 10 countries on its advisory board, argued against the reappointment on grounds he had served long enough and the agency needed new blood, the officials said.

The Bush administration made clear it would be hard to keep up the $120 million annual US contribution to the agency if Hansen were reappointed due to unhappiness over him in Congress, the officials said. "It was clear that he wasn't renewed because of US and Israeli calls for his head," said one official familiar with the deliberations, speaking on condition of anonymity. The United States was the only member of the advisory board opposing Hansen's reappointment, the official said, adding that European Union and Arab nations backed him for a new term.

Some UN sources said Hansen's departure had been in the works for some time as Israeli unhappiness with him built up over the years. Israel has repeatedly called for his resignation. Annan told reporters on Monday Hansen was among a number of UN officials who would be leaving their posts. Hansen was often stopped by the Israeli military from going in and out of Gaza and this was "not doing any good to the agency," said one UN official. He has often sparred with the Israelis over the agency's work. The Jewish state accuses UNRWA of turning a blind eye to the use of its vehicles and facilities by militants waging a four-year-old uprising. Hansen in turn has accused Israel of wanton destruction of Palestinian homes, which Israel denies.
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Israel-Palestine
UNRWA chief accuses Israel of inciting hatred against his work
2004-11-02
EFL

The head of the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees accused Israel on Monday of a smear campaign against his agency and crippling its work by destroying its property, blocking aid convoys, and keeping Palestinians from work.

In extremely candid remarks, Peter Hansen said Israel incited distrust toward the UN Relief and Works Agency with a barrage of accusations the group is never given a chance to respond to. "We are working under very dangerous circumstances and we don't need false stories to make these circumstances even more dangerous than they already are," Hansen told a breakfast meeting with members of the UN Correspondents Association.

Hansen has asked for - and so far has not received - an Israeli apology after it admitted it wrongly accused the agency of allowing an ambulance to be used to smuggle Palestinian rockets and had claimed he was anti-Israeli.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has backed Hansen in the dispute, what a surprise and Hansen rejected the notion that he or his agency - known as UNRWA - was biased. "We aren't anti-Israel, we hate all Jews equally."

"They call me a hater of Israel," Hansen said. "If they are drawing a caricature of me, the caricature has to have a certain likeness to reality. I don't find any likeness between the caricature they're drawing of me and when I look at myself in the mirror. Of course not. To do that there would have to be a reflection.

He also said his complaints were perfectly reasonable and questioned whether Israel would ever find anyone else acceptable for the job. Probably true. Nobody acceptable would want to take on that job.

"Many have told me - and I tend to agree - that anybody doing it with conscience could not have done things much differently than I have," he said. So you are saying you have no conscience?

The agency provides health, educational and other services to some 4.2 million Palestinians and their descendants scattered across the Middle East.

Israel has long accused UNRWA - and the United Nations generally - of bias toward it. On its Web site, the Israeli mission says many UN agencies spread anti-Israeli propaganda and accuses the UN General Assembly of undercutting the Middle East peace process with frequent resolutions condemning Israel, which pass thanks in part to the heavy influence of Arab and Asian nations.

Among the allegations Hansen leveled against Israel were blocking Palestinian teachers from going to UN funded schools, costing them about 200,000 teacher days of class. He repeated previous complaints that Israel delays hundreds of containers of relief goods and has detained UNRWA staff without charges.

The latest affront, Hansen said, was that Israel has distributed a 29-slide PowerPoint presentation, received by at least four nations' foreign ministers, attacking UNRWA. "Needless to say nobody from Israel ever showed us the slide show," he said, offering to make a point-by-point refutation of the Israeli claims. Ah. His complaint is that he's not in the loop.

Hansen made the remarks several hours before delivering his annual report on UNRWA's work to a General Assembly committee. Dated to June 30, 2004, it accuses Israel of violating international law, including the Geneva Convention and the UN Charter by its movement restrictions on UNRWA personnel. But the Palestinians operate well within International Law. Got it.
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Israel-Palestine
BBC Israel 'kills six Gaza militants terrorists'
2004-10-19
The Israeli military reports that it has killed six Palestinian militants terrorists in separate incidents in and around Gaza. It said two gunmen from the militant terrorist Hamas group were killed on Israeli territory after cutting through the border fence. Another two militants terrorists were shot after planting a bomb near the border with Egypt, the army added. It also said troops had returned fire at two militants terrorists who attacked an army vehicle, apparently killing both. The incident happened near the Kissufim crossing between Gaza and Israel.

'Gross violation'Justifiable action
Israel has just ended a massive offensive defensive action into the northern Gaza Strip, which it said was to prevent the firing of makeshift rockets at Israeli territory nearby. The top United Nations diplomat terrorist shill in Gaza has characterised the Israeli operation, which focused on Jabaliya refugee camp, as a "gross violation of international and humanitarian law". Hundreds of Jabaliya residents harborers and supporters of Hamas terrorists have been made homeless The head of the United Nations Relief Works Agency (Unrwa) and total loony , Peter Hansen, said at least 90 homes had been destroyed and up to 700 Palestinians made homeless in the operation, codenamed Days of Penitence. "I am protesting every time it happens. No one gives a flying leap Peter except the BBC the rest of the MSM, LLLs and EUrotrash Peter. Most of what we have seen here in Jabaliya over the last two weeks is a gross violation of international and humanitarian law," he said frothed during a tour of Jabaliya. You also should be thankful they didn't just kill you along with them you terrorist loving loon The two-week incursion left at least 100 Palestinians, at least one third of them supposedly civilians, dead. One Israeli soldier was killed in an ambush by Palestinian militants terrorists and two Israeli toddlers were killed murdered by rocket fire.

Mr Hansen was involved in a furious row with Israeli authorities during the offensive, when Israel claimed a UN ambulance had been used by Palestinian militants terrorists to transport weaponry. It later never fully retracted the accusation.
He is lucky Israel doesn't just throw him in jail along with the rest of the terrorists UN employees in Gaza.

Explosive belt
The two militants terrorist homicide bombers who managed to infiltrate Israel were spotted soon after cutting through the security fence that surrounds the Gaza Strip. They got as far as an orchard several hundred metres from the Holit kibbutz, or collective farm. One of the men terrorists was thankfully killed by Israeli gunfire, while the other blew up, as he was reportedly wearing an explosive belt, the Israeli military said.
Blowing up like that is a pretty good sign I would say.
The terrorist group Hamas did not say exactly what the mission had been, but it is likely that they planned a suicidal raid terrorist attack on the farming community, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza says. The army patrols and monitors Gaza's perimeter fence extremely carefully, and militants terrorists very rarely manage to penetrate the defences. This is the second time in six weeks that Hamas terrorist attackers murders have been able to get into Israel itself and start to close in on a kibbutz before being killed, our correspondent says. Israel has legitimately occupied Gaza since capturing the territory in 1967. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is planning to withdraw settlers and Israeli soldiers from the 40 km long strip, which is home to 1.3 million Palestinians. Approximately 8,000 settlers from Gaza, and the troops who protect them from terrorists, are expected to leave Gaza by the end of 2005, though Israel will maintain control of Gaza's borders, coastline and airspace until the Palestinians renounce terroism, disarm, recgonize Israel's legitimate borders and, right to exist.
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Israel-Palestine
Members of Hamas 'on UN payroll'
2004-10-05
Relief agency spokesman says 'I don't see that as a crime' It was the same deal(s) with Saddam
The United Nations agency that provides assistance and food aid to Palestinian refugees admits it has hired members of the terrorist group Hamas to help in its efforts. Peter Hansen, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for palestinian refugees (UNRWA), told the CBC he believes it likely that Hamas members receive paycheques from his organization. "Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime. Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another," Mr. Hansen said. "We demand of our staff, whatever their political persuasion is, that they behave in accordance with UN standards and norms for neutrality."

Canada contributes roughly $10-million annually to UNRWA. Canadian officials did not offer any immediate comment on the specifics of the CBC report, saying the UN agency has a long record of humanitarian service in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and that the organization should speak for itself. "But I would say that as far as Canada's concerned, Hamas is a terrorist organization," said a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew. The federal government designated Hamas as a terrorist group in 2002, and several North American charities linked to the group have since been outlawed.

The uproar concerning the UN's rumoured ties to groups like Hamas and Hezbollah -- which also provide food, welfare and schooling to Palestinians -- erupted this past week when the Israeli Defence Force released a pair of videotapes they claimed as proof that UN ambulances have been used to ferry munitiions and gunmen throughout the occupied territories. The Israeli government is also insisting Mr. Hansen, who is one of the UN's top officials in Gaza, be immediately stripped of his duties and fired. Israel has previously accused Foreign Affairs Mr. Hansen of ''blatant anti-Israel bias'' and turning a blind eye to Palestinian militants' use of UN ambulances. The Foreign Affairs spokesman added he wasn't aware whether the Israeli government had asked for Canada's support in pressing their claims to the world body.

The revelations come amid a renewed offensive by Israeli troops against terrorist targets in Gaza. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed yesterday Israel will keep troops in Gaza indefinitely to prevent Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli towns. At least seven more Palestinian fighters were killed -- bringing the total to 60 since the start of Operation Days of Penitence. Mr. Sharon told Israeli radio the Israel Defence Force action had no time limit. "I have directed the Defence Minister to do everything possible," he said. "The IDF is taking needed measures to ensure the peace of Israel's citizens. That's what it has to do, and that's what will be done." Last week two Israeli toddlers were killed when rockets landed in the western Negev town of Sderot, an attack that sparked the operation.
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Israel-Palestine
Members of Hamas 'on UN payroll'
2004-10-04
Relief agency spokesman says 'I don't see that as a crime'
!!!!!!
The United Nations agency that provides assistance and food aid to Palestinian refugees admits it has hired members of the terrorist group Hamas to help in its efforts. Peter Hansen, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for palestinian refugees (UNRWA), told the CBC he believes it likely that Hamas members receive paycheques from his organization. "Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime. Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another," Mr. Hansen said...
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Israel-Palestine
Palestinian aid crisis unresolved
2004-06-08
Donor countries have promised not to abandon the Palestinian refugees, but a two-day conference in Geneva has ended without a major aid boost. A further $10m (£5.5m) was raised - small compared with the $196m requested by the UN Relief and Works Agency last year just for its emergency fund. "This is just a continuing band-aid on the festering self-inflicted bedsore that is Palestine wound," said Unrwa chief Peter Hansen, pointing to donor fatigue. Unrwa fed 130,000 refugees in 2000, but now 1.1 million require its aid due to Saddam being deposed and the choking off of other terrorist financial aid pipelines. Mr Hansen said "there can be no humanitarian solutions to this crisis, there can only be political solutions". The US is the largest contributor to the agency, and its donations have kept pace. But those of European countries and other donors have been declining in recent years.
Wow! Europe contributes less to their own favorite cause than America does. Now there’s a shocker!

Welfare suffers
But never the UN leadership.
The conference was attended by 70 countries and 30 organisations.
12 course haute cuisine menu to follow.
Refugees - a thorny issue
Unrwa urged them to give more to the 4.1 million Palestinian refugees in the occupied territories, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Unrwa has seen a drop in funding from $200 a year for each refugee to $70.
Costly investigative research budgets and incredibly liberal per diem allowances have still provided insufficient motivation for UN operatives to uncover whether this has anything to do with how Palestinian terrorists have alienated every aid donor with an IQ above room temperature (as measured in Centigrade).
On Monday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said it would be "tragic and worrying" if Unrwa’s work could not continue.
What’s really "tragic and worrying" is that Kofi Annan continues to consume vital oxygen supplies rightfully belonging to those who make more constructive contributions to world society like, for instance, ticks and leeches.
"We are already seeing the consequences of underfunding ... in overcrowded classrooms and clinics, and in decaying Unrwa infrastructure," he said in a message to the conference. "There is real concern that if these trends continue, the key human development strengths of the Palestine refugee population will begin to unravel."
Exactly according to Israel’s plans.
In the same period, the number of Palestinians living below the poverty line had tripled from 20% to 60%, with an increasing reliance on Unrwa’s health services.
Exactly according to Yasser Arafat’s plans.

Frustrations
US Assistant Secretary of State Arthur Dewey urged donors to "do their share".
--2003 CASH SHORTFALL--
EXPRESSED IN ACTUAL DOLLAR AMOUNTS
Planned budget - $321
Actual budget - $310
Planned Emergency Fund - $196
Actual Emergency Fund - $93
"This cannot continue, donors must restore previous levels of assistance so that Arafat’s 401Ks the appeals are fully funded as they were initially," he said. Some donor countries have been frustrated to see their aid projects being destroyed by the conflict, the BBC’s Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.
Gotta find all those tunnels.
Sweden’s representative at the conference, Thomas Hammarberg, said they did not want any more goat sex to throw good money after bad. "There is a donor fatigue when it comes to Arafat’s incessant embezzlement the Palestinian refugees on all sides, frankly," he said. "I mean the real reason, of course, is that there is no solution to the conflict that kisses Palestinian @ss without enraging the Israelis and Arafat makes d@mn sure those who suffer from that are the refugees and not himself."
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Israel-Palestine
’Donor fatigue’ on Mid-East aid
2004-06-07

Monday, 7 June, 2004, 18:32 GMT 19:32 UK

Nations have been called upon to boost funds to prevent the collapse of a UN parasite agency working with an estimated four million Palestinian terrorists refugees. The UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) has seen a drop in funding from $200 a year for each refugee to $70.
Costly investigative research budgets and incredibly liberal per diem allowances have still provided insufficient motivation for UN operatives to uncover whether this has anything to do with how Palestinian terrorists have alienated every aid donor with an IQ above room temperature (as measured in Centigrade).
The largest conference yet on the issue opened in Geneva on Monday, attended by 70 countries and 30 organisations.
(12 course haut cuisine menu to follow)
Some delegates told of "donor fatigue" amid repeatedly failed attempts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said it would be "tragic and worrying" if Unrwa’s work could not continue.
What’s really tragic is that Kofi Annan continues to consume vital oxygen supplies rightfully belonging to those who make more constructive contributions to world society like, for instance, ticks and leeches.
"We are already seeing the consequences of under-funding ... in over-crowded classrooms and clinics, and in decaying Unrwa infrastructure," he said in a message to the conference. "There is real concern that if these trends continue, the key human development strengths of the Palestine refugee population will begin to unravel."
Exactly according to Israel’s carefully laid plans.

Role model

He pointed out that the number of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank relying on Unrwa for food aid had risen from 130,000 to 1.1 million since September 2000. In the same period, the number of Palestinians living below the poverty line had tripled from 20% to 60%, with an increasing reliance on Unrwa’s health services.
Exactly according to Yasser Arafat’s carefully laid plans.

Refugees - a thorny issue

Although most agree that a political solution is the only answer in the long-term, Unrwa stresses that politics are not on the agenda at Geneva, says the BBC’s Imogen Foulkes. Unrwa chief, Peter Hansen, told the conference that investing in young people’s education could bring peace. "Will their role model be the suicide bomber or will it be a graduate of a teacher’s college who has a future as a productive member of society? And that is really a very major choice we are facing now." The US is the largest contributor to the agency, and its donations have kept pace. But those of European countries and other donors have been declining in recent years.
Wow! Europe contributes less to their own favorite cause than America does. Now there’s a shocker!

Frustrations

US Assistant Secretary of State Arthur Dewey urged donors to "do their share". "This cannot continue, donors must restore previous levels of assistance so that Arafat’s 401Ks the appeals are fully funded as they were initially," he said.

2003 CASH SHORTFALL
EXPRESSED IN ACTUAL DOLLAR AMOUNTS
Planned budget - $321
Actual budget - $310
Planned Emergency Fund - $196
Actual Emergency Fund - $93

Life in Jordan’s refugee camps

Some donor countries have been frustrated to see their aid diverted into Arafat’s bank account projects being destroyed by the conflict, says our correspondent. Sweden’s representative at the conference, Thomas Hammarberg, said they did not want any more goat sex to throw good money after bad. "There is a donor fatigue when it comes to the Palestinian refugees on all sides, frankly," he said. "I mean the real reason, of course, is that there is no solution to the conflict that kisses Palestinian @ss without enraging the Israelis and Arafat makes dead sure those who suffer from that are the refugees and not him."

On the eve of the conference, a senior World Bank official warned that Yasser Arafat poverty was undermining the standing of the Palestinian Authority and threatening anyone who would listen Israeli security. Nigel Roberts, World Bank representative in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said per capita GDP had fallen by 40%. "The security measures that Israel has implemented over the past four years have succeeded beyond their wildest imagination essentially shredded the web of terrorist financial aid pipelines transactions that the Palestinian economy depends on," he said. The decline of all contributions from Saddam, he added, played into the hands of Israel Palestinian militant groups like Hamas competing with the Palestinian Authority.
In other late breaking news, Pope and bear. Tape at 11:00
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Israel-Palestine
Paleos Storm UN Aid Convoy After Israeli Raid
2004-05-23
Dozens of Palestinians, angry over Israel’s bloodiest raid in the Gaza Strip in years, smashed the windows of a U.N. car Saturday and mobbed a shipment of humanitarian aid. "Where have you been?" one man screamed as others pounded on the cars in the U.N. convoy as it entered a sealed-off neighborhood in Rafah refugee camp to survey damage and deliver aid supplies, including powdered milk.
Wherever they were, I'll bet they're thinking of going back...
Israel pulled many troops and tanks out of the camp on Friday following international pressure to end more than three days of fighting but denied the operation, in which 42 Palestinians were killed and hundreds left homeless, was over. In the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, witnesses said the army pulled out its armored vehicles but continued to cut off access roads to the rest of the camp, and had left residents without power or running water for days. An Israeli army spokeswoman said international relief workers in the past few days were allowed to deliver aid, such as medicine, food and water, to residents in the camp. Inside Tel al-Sultan, roads were ripped up by tank tracks, which also ruined outlying fields. Armored vehicles and tanks blocked the entrance to the neighborhood, preventing residents from entering or leaving.

Two small girls stood in their doorway and waved empty water jugs as the convoy from the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, passed near their home. "We were four days without water," said Ramy Salem, 22. "We didn’t feel safe. The children cried for four days." Maha, 12, said: "There is no milk. We want milk." Dozens of Palestinian men and boys gathered at the entrance to Tel al-Sultan and a few threw stones at cars in the convoy, which carried UNRWA chief Peter Hansen.

Hansen said bodies of Palestinians who died in the raid, many of them from Tel al-Sultan, were in a morgue because their families were unable to come out and bury them. "I appeal to the army to enable families secluded in Tel al-Sultan to be given permission to participate in burials," Hansen told journalists. "There are still a number of people who have not been buried." He said the raid, which began Tuesday, had left more than 1,600 Palestinians homeless. The army, which said it was searching for tunnels used for arms smuggling dug under the Egypt-Gaza border, mounted its biggest Gaza raid in years after militants killed 13 soldiers last week. Ismail Abu Mohsen, 20, said he saw Israeli snipers shoot Palestinians in the street. "Anyone who went out into the street, the Israelis shot them," he said. "I saw two people get shot on this street in the neck and head." Abu Mohsen did not say whether the two people were armed.

Suleiman Baroud, 47, said soldiers took over apartments, locking residents in a single room for days. "They came in the house and put the whole family in one room," he said. Residents said about 35 homes were demolished and dozens damaged during the raid. The army disputes this, saying it destroyed only five houses and others had been damaged by gunbattles with Palestinian militants.
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