Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: gunness

Showing posts with label gunness. Show all posts

Friday, December 25, 2015

.@UNRWA's Chris Gunness again violates his organization's stated neutrality standards

Chris Gunness, UNRWA's spokesperson, tweeted this yesterday: Demand @BBCNews use the words #IsraeliOccupation in its coverage of #Christmas in #Bethlehem. Amazing lack of context needs correction RT — Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 24, 2015 I believe that this is the story that Gunness is referring to, about how the IDF is coordinating with Bethlehem officials...

Chris Gunness pretends to be neutral and then shows his bias (plus video)

Middle East Eye has a print and video interview with UNRWA's Chris Gunness that shows yet again what a liar and apologist for Palestinian terror he is. When MEE asked Gunness about staying neutral in what many perceive to be an unbalanced conflict, he said he agrees that “it is a very unbalanced conflict in that you’ve got one side throwing stones and on the other side often...

.@UNRWA uses Hamas human shield victim for fundraising and demonizing Israel

Over the past year, Chris Gunness of UNRWA has trotted out Mohammed, a child who was tragically blinded in an Israeli airstrike, as a poster child to raise money from people who would be aghast at Israel's cruelty at doing something so vicious to such an innocent boy. He wrote in September for Haaretz: Behind these statistics are real lives each with a dignity and a destiny...

UN Watch ratchets up the pressure on UNRWA

UNRWA's Chris Gunness did not want to get on Hillel Neuer's bad side. Since Gunness essentially threatened UN Watch on Twitter, Hillel has been nearly as obsessed with proving Gunness is a hypocrite as, well, me. Yesterday, Neuer was on WSJ video news.slamming Gunness. "If you promote racism & violence, we're going to land on you like a ton of bricks." WSJ Video http://t.co/J9rYGwzIg1 pic.twitter.com/Vv3fZotrsa — UN Watch (@UNWatch) August...

Antisemitic UNRWA teachers on Facebook. UNRWA pretends they aren't there (UPDATE)

Today, Chris Gunness has told The Jerusalem Post that the UNRWA school whose Facebook page I discovered had antisemitic material had nothing to do with UNRWA. Yeah...someone forged an UNRWA page for a couple of years in hopes that its antisemitism would be discovered by someone like me eventually. Makes perfect sense. Also: He also dismissed claims that a staff member in...

In my last post I quoted Chris Gunness on Israeli TV last week: Where we find credible allegations of neutrality violations among our staff, we investigate and where it's appropriate we take disciplinary action up to and including dismissal. And that process is audited by our major donors. Since he said that, he tweeted this:: Interested to find out more about UN Watch's...

Last week, on Israeli TV, in response to my scoop about UNRWA teachers posting pro-terror and pro-Nazi images on Facebook, UNRWA's spokesperson Chris Gunness said words that I am not going to let him forget. He said: Where we find credible allegations of neutrality violations among our staff, we investigate and where it's appropriate we take disciplinary action up to and...

Bigot Chris Gunness assumes that Palestinians will start intifada if UNRWA schools are shut down

Chris Gunness, UNRWA's spokesperson, tweeted these on Friday: The article he is referring to is here. Gunness, trying to cajole the world into giving more and more funds to his agency, is using the threat that if the UNRWA schools don't start on time, then we can expect violence from the students - just as, he quotes an "expert," the deadly riots of 1936-9 and the First...

Chris Gunness trolling for dead babies to star in Pallywood production

Check out this tweet from UNRWA's Chris Gunness: Can anyone put me in touch with a family in Gaza where a child died of hyperthermia? Thanks. @ChrisGunness — Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) February 2, 2015 (That's hypothermia, not hyperthermia, Chris. You're welcome.) There have been reports of a few children who "froze to death" in Gaza this winter. Their real causes of death are not so clear; for example a two-month old was diagnosed...

My (censored) letter to HuffPo on UNRWA

I wrote this in response to yet another set of apologetics by Chris Gunness of UNRWA, this one in the Huffington Post. I wrote it at 10:30 EDT; as of this writing it has not yet been posted. Many of UNRWA's camps are in Jordan - where most Palestinian Arabs have been citizens for decades. Why are people who are citizens of a state still considered "refugees" by UNRWA? Many more of UNRWA's camps are in the areas of British Mandate Palestine,...

UNRWA upset at Israeli TV (updated x3)

From Ha'aretz: The United Nations' relief agency for Palestinian refugees, lashed out Tuesday at the Israel Broadcasting Authority for airing what it called a a dishonest portrayal of the organization on Saturday in "Ro'im Olam" on Channel 1 television. Right-wing journalist David Bedein's "For the Nakba", UNRWA said, contains numerous inaccuracies about its operations in...

Free Gaza ignores increased aid to Gaza

Israel has steadily been working to increase the number of goods being brought into Gaza. The average number of trucks entering Gaza with goods has gone up from 140 to 250, and Israel is expanding both the number of hours and the size of the Kerem Shalom crossing. This is all in response to the flotilla incident, so pretty much anyone would agree that the organizers of the flotilla have succeeded in helping ordinary Gazans, as prices have plummeted...

One more UNRWA email chain (updated)

After the UNRWA spokesman sent me his latest denial that Hamas diverts or steals aid, I sent him this:Thanks, but my original question and all followups were asking not only about UNRWA aid but also about aid meant for other NGOs, such as Red Crescent. In at least one case UNRWA was the alleged recipient of the diverted aid, as reported in the Arabic News last February:Hamas says it seized Jordan aid to keep it safe Palestine-Jordan, Politics,...

A tacit UN admission of Hamas stealing aid? (updated)

While UNRWA adamantly denies that Hamas is stealing aid in Gaza, contrary to reports from Israeli, PA and Jordanian officials, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes has just said something intriguing.In a report to the UN on the situation in Gaza, where he criticizes both Israel and Hamas, The Under-Secretary-General also emphasized that Hamas must refrain from any interference with the movement or distribution of humanitarian...

UNRWA denies stories

I just asked Chris Gunness, UNRWA spokesman, two questions:I would like to follow up on my earlier inquiry about the Jordanian aid truck meant for UNRWA that had been reportedly been hijacked by Hamas. Did you ever confirm that this happened, or that any aid truck was hijacked by Hamas?Also, I just found a story from Palestine Press Agency from last April that quoted sources as saying that residents of a camp in Khan Younis were complaining about...

The aid battle continues

The picture on what exactly is happening with aid trucks into Gaza is getting a little clearer, no thanks to the UNRWA which is keeping mum on the ugly details.As commenter Suzanne uncovered, last year Hamas admitted it confiscated 16 trucks of aid from Jordan, meant for the Palestinian Red Crescent, and Jordan was not happy about it:Minister of State for Information Affairs Nasser Joudeh said Hamas government on Thursday seized 16 trucks carrying...

UNRWA tries to sweep incidents under the rug

I again asked the UN Spokesperson whether he could confirm or deny that a humanitarian aid convoy was hijacked by (presumably Hamas) gunmen, as reported by the official Jordanian news agency. (My initial posting on the event is here, my earlier correspondence with him is here.)My question was:Have you yet been able to confirm whether any trucks meant for UNRWA were attacked as Petra reported?The reply this time is:No which suggests it may not be...

Update on hijacked Jordanian aid convoy (UPDATE 2)

Ma'an finally cover the story I broke this morning, although I still have not found any non-Arab media mentioning it:The Jordanian news agency Petra reported on Tuesday that armed men held up an aid convoy after it crossed into the Gaza Strip.The agency reported that armed men fired at the trucks and diverted them to private warehouses after they passed through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, an Israeli-controlled crossing used primarily for shipments...

The UNRWA response that reveals their true colors

I mentioned on Wednesday that the UNRWA in the West Bank went on a planned 3 day strike - stopping food distribution and other services - in response to attacks and threats on UNRWA personnel by Palestinian Arabs.And these events were not mentioned, as far as I could tell, on the UN or UNRWA websites (although their concurrent suspension activities in Gaza in response to fuel shortages were mentioned.)Why does the supposedly neutral UNRWA go out...