Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

HRW reports vs. Freedom House - a more accurate list

Commenter Al has put together a table of how many reports Human Rights Watch has issued for each country, which should be a more accurate measure of how much time they spend on each country than the Google method I had used.

Using his numbers, the worldwide correlation between the amount of effort HRW puts into countries versus the Freedom House score of the same countries is still a very weak 0.21. (One would expect that number to be well above 0.50.)

The most disproportionate attention is paid to the US (210/4), UK (33/2), Indonesia (88/5), Israel (39/3), Serbia, India, Croatia, Chile and Canada.

The countries with severe human rights issues that are all but ignored by HRW are Laos, Brunei, Oman, and Qatar, each with zero HRW reports. Countries with the worst Freedom House scores of 13 or 14 that had the least reports are Equatorial Guinea (2), Turkmenistan (4), Belarus (4), Eritea (5) and North Korea (6).

For your edification, here's the entire list I put together so you can have fun number-crunching as well (and perhaps coming up with a better formula than I did to rank them; perhaps separate lists for "not free" countries and "free" countries:)

Country	HRW Reports	Freedom House score
Laos	0	13
Brunei Darussalam	0	11
Oman	0	11
Qatar	0	11
Fiji	0	10
Maldives	0	7
Solomon Islands	0	7
Tonga	0	6
Antigua and Barbuda	0	5
Montenegro	0	5
Mongolia	0	4
Samoa	0	4
Trinidad and Tobago	0	4
Vanuatu	0	4
Grenada	0	3
Monaco	0	3
Taiwan	0	3
Andorra	0	2
Bahamas	0	2
Barbados	0	2
Cyprus	0	2
Finland	0	2
Iceland	0	2
Kiribati	0	2
Liechtenstein	0	2
Lithuania	0	2
Malta	0	2
Marshall Islands	0	2
Nauru	0	2
New Zealand	0	2
Norway	0	2
Palau	0	2
Portugal	0	2
Saint Kitts and Nevis	0	2
Saint Lucia	0	2
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	0	2
San Marino	0	2
Slovenia	0	2
Tuvalu	0	2
Uruguay	0	2
Swaziland	1	12
Congo (Brazzaville)	1	11
Gambia	1	10
Madagascar	1	10
Equatorial Guinea	2	14
Moldova	1	7
Djibouti	2	11
Gabon	2	11
Paraguay	1	6
Seychelles	1	6
Armenia	2	10
Niger	2	9
Guyana	1	5
Burkina Faso	2	8
Guinea-Bissau	2	8
Turkmenistan	4	14
Belarus	4	13
Central African Republic	3	10
Comoros	2	7
Suriname	1	4
Cameroon	4	12
Singapore	3	9
Eritrea	5	14
Mauritania	4	11
Lesotho	2	6
Nicaragua	3	8
North Korea	6	14
Bahrain	5	11
Bhutan	4	9
Malawi	3	7
Papua New Guinea	3	7
Belize	1	3
Italy	1	3
Latvia	1	3
Panama	1	3
Togo	5	9
Mozambique	4	7
Kazakhstan	7	11
Kyrgyzstan	7	11
United Arab Emirates	7	11
Honduras	5	8
Botswana	3	5
Mali	3	5
Libya	10	14
Bolivia	4	6
Ecuador	4	6
Azerbaijan	10	11
Tanzania and Zanzibar	5	6
Jamaica	4	5
Benin	3	4
Namibia	3	4
Cape Verde	1	2
Costa Rica	1	2
Denmark	1	2
Switzerland	1	2
Tunisia	12	12
Guinea	10	10
Venezuela	9	9
Cuba	12	11
Yemen	12	11
Cote d'Ivoire	15	13
Syria	15	13
Kuwait	10	9
Tajikistan	13	11
Somalia	17	14
Algeria	14	11
Macedonia	7	6
Jordan	15	11
Zambia	10	7
Vietnam	19	12
Saudi Arabia	21	13
Ukraine	7	5
Albania	9	6
Malaysia	13	8
Morocco/Western Sahara	15	9
Chad	23	13
Burma	25	14
Angola	20	11
Cambodia	20	11
Senegal	10	6
Argentina	6	4
Japan	4	3
Austria	2	2
Estonia	2	2
Ireland	2	2
Sweden	2	2
Haiti	18	9
Thailand	18	9
Iran	25	12
Bangladesh	14	7
Dominican Republic	7	4
Ethiopia	26	12
Guatemala	19	9
East Timor	15	7
Uzbekistan	33	14
Zimbabwe	28	12
Lebanon	18	8
Nepal	18	8
Philippines	13	6
Georgia	19	8
Rwanda	28	11
Sierra Leone	14	6
Burundi	27	10
Sri Lanka	24	9
South Korea	6	3
Netherlands	3	2
Slovak Republic	3	2
Peru	13	5
Bulgaria	10	4
Pakistan	28	9
Ghana	7	3
Liberia	22	7
Romania	11	4
El Salvador	15	5
Uganda	31	9
Democratic Republic of Congo	43	12
Belgium	4	2
Hungary	4	2
Poland	4	2
Sudan	58	14
Egypt	46	11
Brazil	14	4
Kenya	29	7
China and Tibet	59	13
Colombia	30	7
Czech Republic & Former Czechoslovakia	5	2
Afghanistan	56	12
Nigeria	38	8
Greece	11	3
Bosnia and Herzegovina	36	7
Germany	6	2
Russia	61	11
Iraq	64	11
Mexico	28	5
Australia	7	2
France	7	2
Turkey	44	6
Spain	9	2
South Africa	29	4
Canada	10	2
Chile	10	2
Croatia	21	3
India	53	5
Serbia	50	4
Israel	39	3
Indonesia	88	5
United Kingdom	33	2
United States	210	4

Wikileaks: The Dutch catch potential terrorists, 2004

From Wikileaks, July 29, 2004:

DCM and RSO responded to the office of the Dutch National Coordinator for Security and Public Safety, at his request, to join with the Israeli Security Officer, in a briefing on a security incident from the previous evening. The security incident was a filming of sensitive locations including Dutch provincial and national government building and the US and Israeli Embassies, among others. It was later determined that our source received the report the previous evening but that the incident was several hours earlier in the day.

The incident came to light when the Dutch Royal Military Police Security Detail for the Israeli Defense Attach noticed an passenger filming the area in front of the Israeli Embassy from inside a vehicle stopped across the street. The MPs followed the suspicious vehicle, a black Peugeot 205 (NFI) and when the driver was observed using his cell phone, not hands free while driving, they stopped him for the traffic violation. The two occupants were determined to be a Dutch citizen and a Saudi citizen. The MPs reviewed the filming done by the subject even though they lacked any clear legal authority to do so. The review revealed they had filmed for approximately one kilometer on 3 streets. They began at the provincial government building around the corner and continued towards our location filming the Omani Embassy, Turkish Embassy, The Hague's only Synagogue, the French Embassy (immediately adjacent to us) along the way, our building and continued almost a half kilometer to the Israeli Embassy and the Dutch Parliament building across the street.

The subject's line of approach gave him an angled view of our only pedestrian entrance and our rear gate vehicle entrance. This line of travel took then along the south side (long side) of the building and gave them a similarly angled but fairly complete view of the front of our building. Finding no reason to hold the subjects the MPs released them after returning their video camera.

The Coordinator refused our requests for names, DOBs and tag numbers citing the fact that an active Police investigation was ongoing and that he did not have authority to release that information. He did indicate that he anticipated arrests in the next day or two.

July 30:

The two subjects have been closely monitored and were arrested separately, one this morning and the other this afternoon, both without incident. Two, as yet unidentified, associates were also arrested. LEGATT reports the Police are searching two houses and two vehicle as of 1710 hours. One house is the residence of the subject XXXXXXXXXXXX, the ownership/occupancy of the other hose is currently unknown. It is know that the subjects were followed to this location yesterday. One vehicle is presumably the Black Peugeot 205, NL Tag TY 73 HK, used in this incident. Police advise that an Uzi SMG was found at the other residence. The Prosecutor has authorized continued detention of all of the subjects based on the recovery of a firearm.

Some more statistics HRW vs. Freedom House

After yesterday's post showing that HRW's Middle East/North Africa focus was so skewed, I wanted to look a little further.

The weak negative correlation between the Freedom House findings and HRW's focus is all because of Israel. The -0.12 correlation turns into +0.31 if Israel is taken out of the calculations.

Thanks to commenter RuthieofAmerica and my own efforts, I added the statistics for the Americas, most of Asia/Pacific, and Europe. (No sub-Saharan Africa at this time.)

There is one other area of the world where one can see a similar heavily disproportionate focus, and that is the Americas. The correlation between the two is a very weak 0.07, but if you take out the United States from the equation, it turns into a much stronger 0.42. This is because HRW mentions the US far, far more than any other country, over 14,000 times according to Google, more than double the next country I have statistics for (Pakistan.)

The correlation for Western Europe was 0.47 and for Asia/Pacific 0.27 (I didn't include some of the tiny island nations.) For Eastern Europe it is 0.25.

Keep in mind that the Freedom House score is between 2 and 14.

Using a very rough calculation, one can see that compared to Freedom House's numbers, HRW is most biased against the United States (14700/4), France (3710/2), Israel (3940/3), the UK (1740/2), Hungary (1400/2), Australia (1330/2) and Canada (1280/2.)

On the other hand, HRW does not give nearly the proper attention to South Ossetia, Brunei (258/11), Laos, Turkmenistan, North Korea, Oman (328/11), Qatar, and Bahrain, with countries like Algeria, Libya (1240/14), Yemen, Cuba, the UAE and Syria (1510/13) not far behind.

In the middle, with what appears to be a proportional focus by HRW, we see Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, China and Iran.

Here are the numbers I have so far, in rough order from HRW under-reporting to over-reporting. (My formula was a simple one: HRW mentions / (FW score - 1). )

Country	HRW	FH
Northern Cyprus	9	4
Nagorno-Karabakh	101	10
SouthOssetia	198	13
Dominica	18	2
Abkhazia	197	10
Paraguay	115	6
Tajikistan	249	11
Brunei	258	11
Laos	356	13
Moldova	178	7
Turkmenistan	404	14
North Korea	413	14
Oman	328	11
Mongolia	113	4
Bosnia-Herzegovina	228	7
Nicaragua	294	8
Qatar	456	11
Armenia	411	10
Bahrain	460	11
Latvia	108	3
Macedonia	276	6
Trinidad/Tobago	168	4
Montenegro	230	5
Guyana	250	5
Haiti	512	9
Panama	129	3
Azerbaijan	655	11
Belarus	792	13
Algeria	787	11
Kazakhstan	799	11
Singapore	649	9
Bolivia	408	6
Uzbekistan	1070	14
Albania	412	6
Guatemala	730	9
Kyrgyzstan	933	11
Libya	1240	14
Yemen	999	11
Bulgaria	315	4
San Marino	106	2
Romania	319	4
Suriname	320	4
Cuba	1070	11
Lithuania	107	2
Antigua/Barbuda	450	5
Estonia	115	2
Honduras	839	8
UAE	1200	11
Liechtenstein	122	2
Syria	1510	13
Bangladesh	767	7
Dominican-Republic	384	4
Iceland	130	2
Jordan	1300	11
Morocco	1060	9
Monaco	272	3
Tunisia	1530	12
Kuwait	1130	9
Puerto-Rico	142	2
StVincent/Grenadines	294	3
Malaysia	1040	8
Kosovo	1210	9
Taiwan	308	3
Burma	2030	14
Luxembourg	157	2
Slovenia	161	2
Georgia	1140	8
Thailand	1330	9
Ecuador	871	6
Grenada	356	3
Peru	738	5
Belize	371	3
Vietnam	2070	12
Egypt	1930	11
Jamaica	776	5
Lebanon	1450	8
Iraq	2170	11
Afghanistan	2510	12
Nepal	1610	8
Serbia	718	4
Colombia	1440	7
South Korea	483	3
Finland	260	2
New Zealand	262	2
CzechRep	265	2
Brazil	833	4
Turkey	1400	6
Croatia	569	3
SaintKitts/Nevis	287	2
Greece	602	3
Malta	308	2
Costa-Rica	311	2
Barbados	318	2
Cyprus	320	2
Saint-Lucia	326	2
Ukraine	1340	5
Argentina	1010	4
Bahamas	339	2
Saudi Arabia	4140	13
Slovakia	345	2
Andorra	347	2
El-Salvador	1490	5
Cambodia	4110	11
Venezuela	3320	9
Mexico	1680	5
Poland	420	2
China	5080	13
Austria	430	2
Russia	4300	11
Italy	869	3
Uruguay	436	2
Japan	964	3
Iran	5730	12
Denmark	548	2
Indonesia	2370	5
Switzerland	597	2
Ireland	602	2
Pakistan	5710	9
Sweden	721	2
Belgium	747	2
Norway	768	2
Netherlands	997	2
Portugal	1020	2
Chile	1070	2
Germany	1080	2
India	4400	5
Spain	1140	2
Canada	1280	2
Australia	1330	2
Hungary	1400	2
UK	1740	2
Israel	3940	3
France	3710	2
USA	14700	4

Wave of organized anti-semitism in Montreal

From the Montreal Gazette:

Montreal's Jewish community is reeling after synagogues and a Jewish school were targeted by vandals who smashed their windows Sunday and Monday.

On Sunday, the school and four synagogues were vandalized. The attacks continued Monday, with police adding a fifth synagogue to the list, although a spokesperson could not say which one as of early Monday afternoon.

Beth Rambam, Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem and Beth Zion synagogues in Cote-St-Luc and Dorshei Emet synagogue in Hampstead were targeted by vandals who threw rocks at the windows, smashing several and causing thousands of dollars in damages, said Rabbi Reuben Poupko.

The Yavne Academy in Cote-St-Luc was also hit.

Poupko, who serves as chairman of the Jewish Community Security Co-ordinating Committee, called the crimes "an organized and systematic attack on Jewish institutional life" and promised that the people who use the buildings on a regular basis would not be intimidated by the vandals.

"The reason it's so troubling is that was not an isolated affair," he said.

"There have been similar incidents over the past few months that haven't garnered any attention. It's increasing in intensity and frequency."

Well, what can you expect? The police are probably so fixated on stopping fictional Islamophobic attacks that they don't have any resources left for protecting Jews.

(h/t LLM)

Are some PalArab NGOs losing funding - or interest?

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs in the "occupied Palestinian territories" (OCHA-oPt) has been maintaining a presence in the PA areas and Gaza for many years now. Sometimes it has been a good source for statistics.

But their website, which used to include weekly reports, has not been updated since June, 2010.

The Gaza NGO Safety Office, run by CARE, is meant to help protect other NGOs in Gaza by letting them know what areas are dangerous or might become dangerous.

But they have not issued any of their biweekly reports since December 12, and now the only updates are SMS messages of things happening in real time.

Not sure if this is meaningful, but it is noteworthy.

The next step....

First...

Yasir Arafat and Tunisian President Ben Ali

Then...

Abbas and Ben Ali

Now...

Palestinians step on a poster with a picture of Tunisia's former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali

Will the next "step" be on photos of Abbas and Arafat?

Jewish couple almost lynched

Here's another case of an attack on Jews in Jerusalem that was eagerly photographed by reporters who just happened to know ahead of time the location of the attack.

Getty Images, somehow knowing that the victims are Jewish "settlers." Notice the stone throwers on the cliff.

Getty Images. It is clearly an ambush.

Reuters. Note the size of the stones and the other photographers.

Reuters.

After the police arrived:

Getty Images. You can see the windshield and sunroof smashed. The wife was driving.

Afterwards, the Arabs continued to riot, throwing stones and bottles at Israeli police who came to assist the couple.

Luckily, the couple was not injured.

Kremlin warned: Bushehr an "Iranian Chernobyl"

From The Daily Telegraph (h/t Backspin)

Russian nuclear scientists are providing technical assistance to Iran's attempts activate the country's first nuclear power plant at the Gulf port.

But they have raised serious concerns about the extensive damage caused to the plant's computer systems by the mysterious Stuxnet virus, which was discovered last year and is widely believed to have been the result of a sophisticated joint US-Israeli cyber attack.

According to Western intelligence reports, Russian scientists warned the Kremlin that they could be facing "another Chernobyl" if they were forced to comply with Iran's tight deadline to activate the complex this summer.

After decades of delays over the plant, which was first commissioned by the Shah in the 1970s, Iran's leaders are demanding that scientists stick to the schedule set last year. They argue that any delay would be a blow to Iran's international prestige.

Russian scientists working at the plant have become so concerned by Iran's apparent disregard for nuclear safety issues that they have lobbied the Kremlin directly to postpone activation until at least the end of the year, so that a proper assessment can be made of the damage caused to its computer operations by Stuxnet.

The Iranian government is bitterly opposed to any further delay, which it would regard as another blow to national pride on a project that is more than a decade behind schedule. While Western intelligence officials believe Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, Iran insists the project's goals are peaceful.

The Russian scientists' report to the Kremlin, a copy of which has been seen by The Daily Telegraph, concludes that, despite "performing simple, basic tests" on the Bushehr reactor, the Russian team "cannot guarantee safe activation of the reactor".

It also accuses the Iranian management team, which is under intense political pressure to stick to the deadline, of "not exhibiting the professional and moral responsibility" that is normally required. They accuse the Iranians of having "disregard for human life" and warn that Russia could find itself blamed for "another Chernobyl" if it allows Bushehr to go ahead.

Shame on me for not being able to stop grinning at the idea of an Iranian Chernobyl.

BDS claims two victories - and is caught lying about both

From Palestine News Network, today:

This week, leading British retail business John Lewis is refusing to stock goods from Israeli cosmetics company Ahava. Canadian retailer The Bay also confirmed that it has discontinued sales of Ahava products.

John Lewis’ decision signifies yet another victory for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Europe. John Lewis’ Managing Director, Andy Street, wrote to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in a letter dated January 7:

“As a socially responsible retailer, John Lewis takes very seriously the treatment of workers and their working conditions. We expect all our suppliers not only to obey the law, but also to respect the rights, interests and well-being of their employees, their communities and the environment. In relation to your specific enquiry about Ahava Dead Sea products, I can confirm that John Lewis has ceased stocking these particular products.”

Sarah Colborne, PSC’s Director of Campaigns and Operations, said, “PSC welcomes John Lewis’ decision to stop stocking Ahava products. Israel’s continued attacks on the Palestinian population – whether living under a brutal blockade in Gaza, under illegal occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, or under constant assault inside Israel, has led to a seismic shift in public opinion, with the movement for peace and justice for Palestinians gaining massive support internationally.”

However, JPost already reported yesterday:

One of the UK’s largest retailers has refuted a claim by an anti- Israel campaign group that it no longer stocks products from a major Israeli cosmetics company for political reasons, condemning the group for creating “false and misleading” information.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) implied on Friday that the awardwinning British retail giant the John Lewis Partnership – which owns the John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarket chains – had stopped stocking products from Israeli cosmetics company Ahava after PSC wrote to the company’s managing director.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Friday, a spokesman for John Lewis emphatically denied PSC’s claim, stating that while the retailer had stopped stocking Ahava products, it was purely a commercial decision.

He added that John Lewis was an “apolitical” organization, and that the decision to cease stocking Ahava was made “well before” PSC sent its letter.

“To be clear, John Lewis’s decision to no longer stock Ahava beauty products was a commercial decision based solely on the sales performance of the products.

“Our buyers regularly review the performance of all our ranges, with new products being added and less successful ones being removed throughout the year,” the spokesman told the Post.

“I can confirm that the PSC wrote to Andy Street to ask firstly about whether we had ceased to sell Ahava products, and secondly our stance on ethical sourcing.

“At John Lewis, ensuring that we reply straightforwardly to any query is an important element in the way we communicate with our customers. Andy responded to confirm that we no longer sell Ahava products, a decision which had been taken and implemented well before he received the PSC’s letter. This was a purely commercial decision.

“In addition, in the content of his letter of response, Andy outlined John Lewis's responsible sourcing policy. This information is entirely unrelated to the decision to cease stocking Ahava products; however the person who wrote the PSC’s press release put the two elements together to create a false and misleading quote,” the spokesman said.

John Lewis said it stocks a vast range of Israeli goods, and will continue to do so.

“We can confirm that we continue to stock products sourced from Israel,” the spokesmans said.

And as far as Canadian retailer Hudson Bay is concerned:

Last week, after a regularly-scheduled review of the products it offers, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) discontinued sales of AHAVA beauty products, primarily because of sales results which had been declining for several years.

Although this decision was made by HBC solely for commercial reasons, it occurred at the same time as an aggressive campaign by several groups advocating a boycott of AHAVA products. At no point did political considerations enter into the exercise of HBC's business judgment. HBC has made it clear that it has not "bowed to political pressure" in the past, has not done so now and will not do so in the future. HBC neither subscribes to nor endorses politically-motivated boycotts of merchandise from countries with whom Canada has open and established trading relationships, including Israel.

AHAVA products will soon be reformulated and redesigned as a totally changed brand. The new AHAVA products will be ready by mid-spring and is planned to be re-launched at HBC stores across Canada. We encourage consumers across Canada to purchase those products as soon as they are available.

This statement is being jointly issued by Bonnie Brooks, Chief Adventurer & CEO, Hudson’s Bay Company, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and Moshe Ronen, National Chair, Canada Israel Committee.

BDS proponents are so desperate for a major victory that they will happily lie to make themselves feel as if they have an impact.

Egyptian man sets himself on fire, imitating Tunisia spark

The Arabic press is very concerned over the repercussions of an Egyptian man who set himself on fire today:

A man set himself on fire outside parliament in Cairo on Monday, the official MENA agency said, in an apparent copycat replay of the self-immolation of a Tunisian graduate which sparked a popular revolt.

The man, who was identified as restaurant owner Abdo Abdelmoneim from Qantara, near the port town of Ismailiya, "stood in front the parliament building in (downtown Cairo) and set fire to his body."

"He was immediately taken to hospital to receive the necessary treatment," MENA said.

A parliamentary source said the man "stood outside the People's Assembly, poured fuel on himself and set himself on fire."
"A policeman who was close by managed to extinguish the fire and the man was quickly taken away by ambulance," the source added, according to AFP.

MENA said the man was driven to set himself alight because "he did not receive the bread coupons for his restaurant." It did not elaborate.

The incident comes after 26-year-old Tunisian graduate Mohammed Bouazizi torched himself in Tunisia when police prevented him from selling fruit and vegetables to make a living.

The case of Bouazizi, who would later die of his wounds, unleashed a wave of protests in Tunisia that would eventually topple the 23-year-old regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

In Algeria, at least four attempted public suicides -- all over jobs and housing -- were reported this week after Bouazizi's self-immolation.

Egypt is acting like, well, Egypt:

Abdu Gaafar, the man who set him self alight in front of Egypt's parliament building on Monday morning, said he was frustrated by security treatment.

He revealed that security authorities in the governorate of Ismailia, east of Cairo, refused to provide him with his share of subsidized bread for the restaurant he runs at the city of Qantara.

Gaafar suffered 5 percent face burns before nearby officers managed to put out the fire and take him to hospital, according to a security source.

But a medical source estimated burns to 60 percent of his body, concentrated on his hands and legs.

A security source revealed that Gaafar is being interrogated, to find out if "foreign hands" were behind his act.

Officer Amr Zaki told reporters that while on duty in front of the People's Assembly building, he was surprised to see a man setting fire to himself on the sidewalk opposite.

He added that the man poured gasoline on himself and ignited it while chanting anti-state security slogans, before the officer put out the fire with the help of colleagues.

But Reuters news agency quoted a guard at the parliament's gate as saying a taxi driver actually used his fire extinguisher to help the protester before firemen employed by parliament came to help.

It doesn't look like Gaafar will die, but it is very hard to predict how the Arab street will react to any specific event. Egypt is already on edge from the Copt issue.

Gaza, PA health ministries trade accusations

From Ma'an:

Gaza's health sector is on the verge of collapse due to a lack of medicine, a Gaza hospital director said Sunday.

Medhat Abbas, general director of the Ash-Shifa medical complex in Gaza City, said medical care must be separated from political disputes.

Gaza's Health Ministry has blamed its counterpart in Ramallah for a shortage of medicine in the Strip.

Bassem Naim, health minister in the Hamas-led government, said Thursday that Gaza was lacking about 40 percent of basic medicines and accused the Palestinian Authority of withholding key stocks.

PA Health Minister Fathi Abu Mughli immediately rejected the charge, and said the shortage was the result of "mismanagement" by the Hamas health ministry which he said had sacked 1,600 ministry of health employees and replaced them with people "with no experience in dealing with or storing medicine."

Gaza medical director Medhat Abbas said hundreds of patients were at risk due to the shortage of medicines, particularly those needing cancer treatment, dialysis and insulin.

As we've reported in the past, there is evidence that Hamas confiscates medicines meant for Gaza hospitals and sells them to pharmacies at a profit:

“They are as big harami as Dahlan,” he said, using the Arabic slang for “thieves”. “They used to be mujaheddin, but today they are fat millionaires with nice cars,” he added, pointing to his flat stomach. “Look, you can either be a millionaire or you can lead a resistance. But you if you take the medical aid sent by Europe to help the poor people of Gaza and sell it in your own pharmacies to make money for yourself and the government, you can’t have both.”

At this point he pulled a packet of antibiotics from his pocket; it is stamped: “A gift of the people of Norway. Not for resale.”

“I just bought this from a Hamas-run pharmacy here in Rafah for my son,” he said. “I had to go to a Hamas pharmacy to make sure the pills weren’t fake or made from poor materials in Egypt. If you want real medicine, you have to buy the aid Europe sends us.”

Meanwhile, at the very same time that Hamas' medical director said that "medical care must be separated from political disputes," he accused Israel of using illegal weapons in Gaza:

Abbas said doctors examined samples taken from the bodies of those killed in the 3-week war and found evidence that Israeli forces used internationally prohibited weapons against Gaza's residents.

He condemned the silence of the international community over what he described as Israeli war crimes.

Goldstone, about 8 HRW reports, a number of Amnesty reports, many art and photo exhibits on Gaza, massive anti-Israel demonstrations in Europe, daily incitement against Israel, and entire worldwide BDS movement, highly publicized "flotillas" ... and Hamas whines that they aren't getting enough publicity!

For big, bad mujahadeen, Hamas members sure act like babies!

Two top UNRWA officials resign

From Ma'an:

The directors of the UN's Palestine refugee operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank resigned Monday morning, an UNRWA spokesman said.

Adnan Abu Hasna said Barbara Shenstone, the West Bank director, and John Ging, based in the Gaza Strip, were stepping down.

UNRWA says:

John Ging is to take up a senior position in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in New York and Ms Shenstone is to return to her native Canada.

This creates more questions than it answers. Two resignations on the same day seems unlikely to be coincidental. UNRWA will furiously spin this to make it appear that this does not indicate a problem at the agency.

UNRWA is far from transparent, especially given that it gets all of its funds from the nations of the world. For example, it never acknowledged the UNRWA West Bank workers' strike that started last October.

It is likely that the UNRWA strike is what caused Shenstone to resign. Here is an editorial in Ma'an calling for her to do exactly that in December:

The events of the past month show Shenstone as a stubborn leader, tough and determined to act on principle. It seems, however, that she has also taken the matter personally, and is exacting a grudge without feeling the responsibility for the loss of UNRWA services to Palestinians.

As a result, many notable figures in the country have asked her to leave the West Bank and return home. We have enough extremists and we do not need her. It would be better if she worked in the UN Archives.

While Shenstone has all the credentials of a good leader, she lacks wise management skills. This became apparent as we watched her react to the workers on strike.

On Sunday she described the demands of the workers as "absurd," and said it revolved around a demand that workers be "paid hourly wages they didn't receive the last time they went on strike, and we're not willing to do that."

Since the start of the strike, 56,000 children in UNRWA schools are wandering the streets waiting for Shenstone to act generously and give up her pride and cede the demands of the union.

Thirty clinics in 19 refugee camps shut down, patients with high blood pressure, diabetes, sick children are suffering and piles of rank garbage are collecting in the streets, while Shenstone moved her administrative offices to the Ambassador Hotel in Jerusalem and rejected mediation efforts from the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice and other lawmakers. She has divorced herself from reality.

Even if the union is in the wrong, Shenstone's insistence on carrying out this stupidity is a crime against the children of the camps and their parents. We need leaders who work miracles and ensure that children in the camps are helped in whatever way they can be, we do not need suborn leaders.

Residents, planning action in support of the union, have prepared signs with Shenstone's photo, and the words "Go back to your country, you are persona non grata."

Let's hope that Ging and/or Shenstone will start talking about how things really are at UNRWA, the way that James Lindsay did after he left the agency.