Posted on February 1st, 2012 by Marian Houk
UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-Moon met Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem today, then Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. After both meetings, there was a press conference. In Jerusalem with Netanyahu, BAN said “Settlements do not help the peace process… I told the prime minister that he should refrain from future construction”. [Just future construction? [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN Secretary-General, UN Security Council, United Nations
Posted on November 5th, 2011 by Marian Houk
An annual event at the pastoral tranquility of the UN office in Geneva — or, as it is known locally, the Palais des Nations, which is former home and site of the sad story of the League of Nations — the sheep-grazing of the lawns in October-November. The photo below was taken by the dashing [...]
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Filed under: Blogging, Journalism and Journalists, Switzerland, United Nations
Posted on November 1st, 2011 by Marian Houk
Quiet satisfaction in Jerusalem — East Jerusalem, that is — the day after UNESCO voted to admit Palestine as a full member state. According to one adviser to UNRWA, the vote count has been revised to 114 votes in favor [not just 107, as was reported yesterday]… But, because my internet was down from morning [...]
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Filed under: Ambassadors and other diplomats, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, USA, United Nations, United Nations Agencies and Programmes
Posted on October 28th, 2011 by Marian Houk
Writing for the Huffington Post, East Timor’s President Jose Ramos Horta endorsed [in September, just days before PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas actually deposited the request] Palestine’s “UN bid” for full membership in the international organization. Ramos Horta, who was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, alongside East Timor’s Archbiship Belo, for their efforts for [...]
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Filed under: East Timor, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, US in UN, United Nations
Posted on October 25th, 2011 by Marian Houk
John Quigley, renowned legal scholar and professor of international law who has written several books on the Question of Palestine — and who believes that the state of Palestine already exists, based in the Palestine Liberation Organization’s 1988 Declaration of Independence — is in Ramallah for a few days. He will be speaking at a [...]
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Filed under: Academic studies and research, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, United Nations
Posted on September 25th, 2011 by Marian Houk
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has been saying that he is ready to return to negotiations — without preconditions — at any time. He suggested meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the UN, right after his speech yesterday. The Palestinians say that there has to be a complete stop to Israeli settlement activities on the [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet, UN Security Council, United Nations
Posted on September 22nd, 2011 by Marian Houk
It took the American administration several years to denounce the obvious stalling tactics of Israel’s then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir after the launch of the Madrid Peace Conference in October 1991. By then, back-stage talks between Israeli and Palestinian “academics” and “individuals” over dinners in idyllic settings in northern Europe had reached the stage that the [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, US in UN, United Nations
Posted on September 22nd, 2011 by Marian Houk
U.S. President Barack Obama, in his annual address to the UN General Assembly, said Wednesday that “Palestinians deserve to know the territorial basis of their state”. As if they don’t know. Or — as if someone else should tell them. Since their 1988 Declaration of Independence, the Palestinian National Council agreed to form their state [...]
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Filed under: French, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Secretary-General, UN Security Council, United Nations
Posted on September 20th, 2011 by Marian Houk
The news this morning from CNN was that “international” diplomats — mostly European — were working to arrange some kind of face-saving deal whereby Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would present an official request for full UN membership to the UN Security Council, but not ask for a vote. This story is reported here. It is [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, US in UN, United Nations
Posted on September 19th, 2011 by Marian Houk
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has arrived in New York for what has looked like an eventful week that would culminate in a Palestinian bid for full membership in the United Nations. Abbas met the UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-Moon today — but did not submit the letter that has to be given to the UN Secretary-General [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, US in UN, United Nations
