Israeli decision to participated in UN Panel on Freedom Flotilla: “UNprecedented”

Given Israel’s new-found appreciation of international law, it should not be too surprising: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today (Monday), 2.8.10, informed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon that Israel would participate in the panel that he is establishing in the wake of the 31.5.10 events regarding the flotilla”, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office has announced.
According to the [...]

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Israeli naval blockade of Gaza asserted in UN documents

Israeli Foreign Ministry officials told Haaretz that Minister Avigdor Lieberman has contacted the Greek and Moldovan Foreign Ministers, and asked them to stop a Moldovan-flagged cargo ship which intended to sail, imminently, from Greece to Gaza.
Reports indicated, Saturday evening, that the ship had just sailed.
The voyage for this ship from Greece to Gaza [...]

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Palestinians: “It’s only four months…”

Palestinian officials are saying that they were under too much pressure from the Europeans and the Arabs to resist any longer accepting an American proposal to undertake “indirect” or “proximity” talks with Israel after more than a year of no negotiations. “It’s only for four months”, Palestinian officials say, apologetically, with a shrug of [...]

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UNSG BAN says he will send the Goldstone report to Security Council ASAP

The AP’s indefatigable Edith Lederer has reported that “Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday he will send a report calling for Israel and the Palestinians to investigate alleged war crimes during last winter’s conflict in Gaza to the UN Security Council ‘as soon as possible’.”
She added that “The 15 council members have already received copies of [...]

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UNSG Ban Ki-Moon target of Israeli lobbying against Goldstone report

Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at UNHQ in New York on Friday afternoon, and afterward told the Israeli Ynet media group that the Goldstone report on the Gaza war should be “buried”, according to a report on the YNet website.
According to Ynet, Shalom said, “I am more optimistic [...]

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Goldstone to Washington: what’s wrong with report on Gaza war

Both the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon — a cautious bureaucrat if ever there was one — and the more-willing-to-take-risks UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have backed the Goldstone report on last winter’s Gaza war that at least two (or three) and perhaps four (or all five) of the UN Security Council’s Permanent Members don’t [...]

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Is there a Quid Pro Quo – or was it a cave-in?

The Palestinian decision to “withdraw” support for a resolution they were pushing in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva remains unexplained — at least, to the Palestinian people — on Friday night.
The draft resolution would have called for support of the report submitted by South Africa’s Justice Richard Goldstone, who was appointed [...]

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Boycott Cellcom (not Leonard Cohen)

Boycotts are in the air — billed as a peaceful alternative to war and conflict of all sorts. The definitive worth of the tactic is debatable — and in some circles it is being debated. Naomi Klein recently visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory [West Bank + Gaza -- yes, the [...]

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Goldstone mission finishes public hearings – victims air grief but no perpetrators express remorse

Two very rare events — public hearings into the IDF’s Operation Cast Lead “and the circumstances surrounding it” — are over.
The hearings were held by the Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict that was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which is headed by South Africa’s Justice Richard [...]

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Barak with UNSG: Trying to derail Goldstone mission?

This photo was published in the Israeli media – but it is not available on the UN photo site:

Whereas this is one of two UN photos, published on the UN website, showing Barak — standing alone: his preference?  Or UN decision? — talking to journalists at a “stakeout” probably after the meeting:

UN Radio’s Diane Bailey [...]

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