Posted on October 31st, 2007 by Marian Houk
The JPost has just contributed a very interesting bit of news and analyis to recent reports that work on The Wall has stopped because of a supposed “budgetary shortfall”. In an article entitled “Kilometers of W. Bank security fence completed since July: 0″, written by Tovah Lazaroff, the JPost reveals that “Not a single kilometer [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, Register of damages due to The Wall
Posted on October 31st, 2007 by Marian Houk
Thanks to our dear friend Adnan, here is some news you will not read in many other places — it was published in Al-Quds, the Palestinian Arabic-language newspaper published in Jerusalem: ex-UNSG Kofi Annan, here with a delegation of some 10 well-connected do-gooders led by himself and Ted Turner (“We want to help”, Turner told [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on October 31st, 2007 by Marian Houk
About ten days ago, it emerged that the SG’s son-in-law is being moved to Iraq. Journalists at the UN probed the move. Here are some excerpts from an exchange between Inner City Press’ Matthew Lee and UN Spokesperson Michele Montas at the UNHQ daily Noon Briefing for journalists on 19 October: “Question: And there’s a [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Iraq, Journalism and Journalists, UN Administration
Posted on October 30th, 2007 by Marian Houk
In an editorial a few days ago, the NYTimes put the spotlight on the recent “courage in journalism award” that he International Women’s Media Foundation gave to six Iraqi women who work for the McClatchy Newspapers bureau in Baghdad. The NYT reproduced remarks made in an acceptance speech by Sahar Issa, on behalf of all [...]
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Filed under: Iraq, Journalism and Journalists
Posted on October 30th, 2007 by Marian Houk
Yesterday, as Israeli sanctions went into effect against the Gaza Strip, the UNSG issued this statement: “The Secretary-General reiterates his call for the cessation of indiscriminate rocket attacks by Palestinian militants targeting Israel, and strongly condemns these actions. However, he also believes strongly that punitive measures taken by Israel, which harm the well-being of the [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Gaza, International Law, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on October 30th, 2007 by Marian Houk
The UN’s independent investigator on human rights in the fight against terrorism, Martin Scheinin, said in a report released Monday to the UNGA in NY that he’s concerned about U.S. detention practices, military courts and interrogation techniques. He urged the U.S. government to end the CIA practice of extraordinary rendition, in which terrorism suspects are [...]
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Filed under: Guantanamo, Human Rights, Sanctions, Torture
Posted on October 29th, 2007 by Marian Houk
The Jerusalem Post is reporting Monday that Dutch officials are denying that their ship participating in UNIFIL’s “expanded monitoring” off the coast of Lebanon had anything to do with the disruption in Israeli TV reception from a satellite transmitter that began on 6 September, the day of the apparent Israeli attack near Deir Az-Zor in [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, UN Peacekeeping
Posted on October 29th, 2007 by Marian Houk
So, it’s done. Not exactly as announced, but it’s started. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced last week that sanctions would go into effect against Gaza on Sunday — to start the next time a Qassam rocket is fired from Gaza into Israel –and be racheted up with every new attack. The Israeli cabinet apparently [...]
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Filed under: Gaza, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet
Posted on October 28th, 2007 by Marian Houk
The Israeli Government Press Office has just sent out an UPDATE to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s schedule today — announcing a meeting early this evening with former UN SG Kofi Annan as head of a delegation of the “UN Foundation” [I think they mean "Annan's" Global Humanitarian Forum, which was just officially launched on 17 [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Kofi Annan, Quartet, United Nations
Posted on October 27th, 2007 by Marian Houk
The UN’s Human Rights Committee is frustrated at the lack of media coverage of its work, it appears. A press release published by the UN Office in Geneva, where the Committee meets, reports that: “Committee Expert Ivan Shearer presented a working paper on how to improve the Committee’s relations with the media and to make [...]
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Filed under: Human Rights, Journalism and Journalists, United Nations
