Posted on March 9th, 2010 by Marian Houk
A shocking story: Ma’an News Agency reported from Chicago today that “Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said on Monday the Palestinian Authority (PA) urged him to step down after he criticized the PA’s treatment of a UN war crimes report”.
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Filed under: Gaza, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, United Nations Agencies and Programmes
Posted on February 26th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad attended the Friday prayers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron today.
In remarks to journalists in Hebron, Fayyad accused Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and his government of “expropriating” or “annexing” the Ibrahimi (Abraham) Mosque and several other sites important to the three monotheistic religions, including Rachel’s tomb in Bethlehem. [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, United Nations Agencies and Programmes
Posted on January 22nd, 2010 by Marian Houk
Last Friday afternoon, Israeli police arrested 17 Israeli anti-occupation demonstrators who had crossed the Green Line and assembled in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, where over the last year three families have been thrown out of homes built for them in the early 1950s by the the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, United Nations, United Nations Agencies and Programmes
Posted on January 18th, 2010 by Marian Houk
One year after two separate cease-fires (Israel’s, and Hamas’) ended 22 terrible days of an IDF military operation supposedly directed against Hamas, where are things? How is the situation?
Worse than ever.
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Filed under: Gaza, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, United Nations Agencies and Programmes
Posted on August 21st, 2009 by Marian Houk
The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) has classified Swine Flu — the H1N1 virus — as a “pandemic”.
A WHO “Call to Action” published a week ago stated that the pandemic is spreading rapidly, but its future evolution cannot be predicted. It advised governments to “plan for an additional 30 percent buffer stock of medical [...]
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Filed under: United Nations Agencies and Programmes
Posted on August 6th, 2009 by Marian Houk
It might have taken a couple of days to get the statement vetted, cleared, and approved, but UNRWA today issued a statement calling on Israeli authorities “to refrain” from any further house evictions in East Jerusalem.
The statement, issued by UNRWA spokesperson Christopher Gunness, informs us that “UNRWA remains concerned about the other refugee families [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, United Nations Agencies and Programmes
Posted on July 12th, 2009 by Marian Houk
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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Filed under: Blogging, Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, International Court of Justice - ICJ, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, Register of damages due to The Wall, UN Secretary-General, UN Security Council, US in UN, United Nations Agencies and Programmes
Posted on June 20th, 2009 by Marian Houk
After not being elected — for the first time in its history — to membership for the final sessions of the now-replaced UN Human Rights Commission (HRC), and sullenly sitting out the opening sessions of the HRC’s successor (the new but not-much-improved UN Human Rights Council), the U.S. did stand for elections has now joined [...]
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Filed under: Human Rights, UN History, US in UN, USA, United Nations, United Nations Agencies and Programmes
Posted on May 5th, 2009 by Marian Houk
The report of the UN Board of Inquiry on IDF military attacks that struck UN installations in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead — or the summary of this ultra-sensitive report — is not readily available, meaning I could not find it anywhere yet. Nor could I find the test of the UNSG’s letter, which is [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Gaza, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Journalism and Journalists, Palestine & Palestinians, United Nations Agencies and Programmes
Posted on March 26th, 2009 by Marian Houk
The most striking detail about the IDF attack with white phosphorus on the main UNRWA compound in Gaza City — the day UNSG BAN Ki-Moon arrived in the region — was how long it lasted.
Some three hours.
During which time, UNRWA staff and officials were making frantic phone calls to various contacts [...]
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Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Gaza, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians, UN Secretary-General, United Nations, United Nations Agencies and Programmes
