Here are some excerpts from Associated Press news agency reports of UN SG BAN’s activities today in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) — all firsts for a UN leader:
“UN. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, arriving for a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said his trip, including a tour of a Palestinian refugee camp earlier Sunday, strengthened his resolve to work for Mideast peace…Ban later met with parents of some of the more than 9,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and laid a wreath at the gave of longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat”. AP’s report on BAN’s tour of a Palestinian refugee camp is here.
In his first trip to the Palestinian territories, Ban visited the Aida refugee camp on the outskirts of the biblical town of Bethlehem, just south of the barrier. The UN chief went up on the roof of a UN-run girls’ school in the camp, and from there took a look at the barrier, which in some sections, including the one near Aida, is made up of towering cement blocks. ‘No wall will stop us’, read graffiti on the barrier in English. ‘I have deep admiration for these people, for the resilience of Palestinian people, to make their lives better’, Ban said. ‘This has strengthened my resolve and commitment to work for peace in the Middle East’. Ban was surrounded by bodyguards during the brief visit. Camp residents near the girls’ school unfurled large banners from their balconies, to remind Ban of the plight of the Palestinian refugees. ‘UN bodies and agencies should enable Palestinian refugees to exercise their right of return’, read one large sign in English…Senior UN officials and the Palestinian governor of Bethlehem, Salah Tameri, explained to Ban the difficulties caused by Israeli travel restrictions and the barrier. Israel says it built the barrier to keep out Palestinian militants who have killed hundreds of Israelis in bombing and shooting attacks in recent years. The Palestinians oppose the route of the barrier, which carves off some 10 percent of the West Bank Commenting on the barrier, Ban said it is ‘a very sad and tragic thing to see many suffering from the construction of this wall, depriving opportunities for basic living’.”
The AP report is on Ban’s visit to Aida refugee camp outside of Bethlehem is here.
Aida refugee camp is located on the outskirts of Bethlehem, near Rachel’s Tomb, a site that is sacred to Muslims and Jews, but in which a Jewish seminary and housing quarters have been built. Buses accompanied by gun-toting security agents carry religious Jews from Jerusalem to Rachel’s Tomb several times a day — the roads are cleared, and soldiers stationed inside Rachel’s Tomb are on high alert before the buses arrive. Israeli Defense Force patrols enter Aida camp regularly in the middle of the night, and carry out raids, waking and arresting people…but of course, this is only one of the many places that such raids happen.