UN-Truth

Was John Holmes pointing the finger?

Would a UN official ever do that?

Well, today, the Israeli Foreign Ministry made a highly-publicized complaint directly to Holmes, in a meeting in Jerusalem.

In a statement on the MFA website — which was also sent around to journalist by email, and reported in the various languages of Kol Israel this evening — it said that “Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director-General Aaron Abramovich met today in Jerusalem with John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who is currently visiting Israel and the Palestinian Authority … [and] rejected out of hand Mr. Holmes’ statement yesterday in Sderot, in which he described the situation prevailing between Israel and the Palestinians as a vicious “circle of violence”“.

According to the Foreign Ministry statement, Abramovich told Holmes that “the use of expressions such as these creates an analogy between the terrorists and those who are defending themselves against terror” — and “emphasized that Mr. Holmes’ remarks do not serve the interests of peace, as they may unwittingly encourage terrorists to believe that the international community will exert pressure on Israel, instead of dealing with the roots of the violence”.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported this evening that “When asked about the Foreign Ministry statement, Holmes said: ‘I think it’s very hard to construe from what I said anything which could be said to be encouraging terrorism’. On Sunday, Holmes warned Israel against an invasion of the Gaza Strip and said that the crisis in the South can be solved only by diplomacy. ‘The only thing that will make a lasting difference is a peace settlement’, he said. ‘You can’t stop these problems militarily. They have to be solved through negotiations’.
In an interview with Haaretz after his visit to Sderot, Sir John Holmes said that the response to the Qassam rocket attacks must be proportional from a humanitarian point of view. The former British diplomat, who had been involved in negotiations regarding Northern Ireland, said that despite the terrorism, the British government never considered bombing that region, and sought other means to resolve the crisis. Holmes said he was aware of the domestic pressure on the Israeli government to respond to the Qassam attacks, as well as the differences between the situation here and in Northern Ireland, but said there were no magic formulas. The senior UN official had requested to meet with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, but was turned down”.

The Haaretz story recalled a recent earlier episode of Israeli irritation with Holmes: “Regarding the continued Qassam rocket attacks, Holmes said during a visit to Sderot, ‘We condemn absolutely the firing of these rockets. There’s no justification for it. They are indiscriminate’. Two weeks ago, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, attacked Holmes for a statement he issued against collective punishment in the Gaza Strip, while ignoring the rocket attacks against Sderot. Holmes said Sunday that Gillerman apologized when he learned that the condemnation also included specific references to the rocket attacks on Sderot”. This Haaretz story is posted here.

In an earlier story today, Haaretz reported that “Israel has said it is targeting Hamas in response to daily rocket fire from Gaza on Israeli towns. [Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami] Abu Zuhri said Hamas was ready to halt if Israel ended all military action both in Gaza and the West Bank, and allowed free movement into Gaza. In the meantime, Abu Zuhri said, the rocket fire was a form of ’self-defense’ — partly because of the ‘psychological’ effect it had on Israelis who were abandoning homes in the line of fire. ‘It encourages our people’, the Hamas official said … Israel says it may target senior Gaza leaders but Abu Zuhri said it would have no effect. ‘Threats to the Hamas leadership are an expression of the bankruptcy of the occupation’, he said. ‘If the end comes serving the people, that is a very honourable way to go. But the occupier will pay the price’.”

Filed under: Gaza, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, UN Humanitarian Efforts