Jpost Editorial: Yet another UN farce
The UN Commission of Inquiry is not only continuing its track record of anti-Israel bias – it is surpassing it and dragging the bias to new lows.UNRWA strike is an opportunity to shut it down for good
“The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel,” to give it its full title – or UN COI as it is known in brief – was approved and funded by the UN General Assembly in December 2021. Its establishment came following the 11-day war the previous May that started when Hamas in Gaza launched rockets at Jerusalem and much of the rest of Israel.
The COI is an unprecedented, open-ended war crimes probe against Israel. Since no such open-ended investigation has ever been instigated against any other UN member, nobody should have been under any illusion that the reports would be fair or unbiased.
The UN's biased panel members
The composition of the three-member panel should have indeed dispelled any remaining thoughts that the UN might approach Israel and the Palestinians with an open mind. All three members – former UN high commissioner for human rights and current COI Chair Navi Pillay, Chris Sidoti and Miloon Kothari – were all well-known for their anti-Israel stances. The results were a foregone conclusion.
The commission’s mandate allows it to investigate any alleged Israeli human rights violations in sovereign Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. According to the draft of its latest report, released on June 8, even that scope is not enough. As Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices, noted in an opinion article in this paper on Monday, the report contains an unprecedented attack on Israel and its defenders, “including private individuals and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) ‘worldwide.’"
“The move is a dramatic attempt to extend the global reach of a highly controversial venture initiated by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2021, at the behest of Islamic states, without any Western support,” Bayefsky wrote.
While the 78-page report is too long to summarize here in detail, highlights include: “In March 2023, a Knesset lobby for the fight against antisemitism and delegitimization was announced by Likud members of the Knesset, with a focus on combating the ‘undermining’ of Israel by foreign countries that finance human rights and civil society organizations.”
In other words, the COI finds Israel guilty of – among its other “crimes” – daring to tackle delegitimization and antisemitism.
The international community should be allowed to continue aiding Palestinians through means other than UNRWA, whose gradual closure will clearly convey the message that the State of Israel is here to stay and that it is time to negotiate with Israel rather than delegitimize it.Palestinians Build A Mosque, Destroying An Ancient Jewish Fortress In Samaria
The process should begin with the education system of UNRWA in the West Bank. Instead of Palestinian children attending UNRWA schools and teachers receiving salaries from the agency, they will be redirected to schools under the Palestinian Authority.
The buildings will remain the same, the classrooms will be the same, and the teachers will be the same. The practical impact on the lives of Palestinians will be minimal. This situation will greatly facilitate the support of the defense establishment since the risk of social and security instability will be minimal.
Israel will demand that donor countries transfer the proportional portion of their donations allocated to the education system to the Palestinian Authority instead of UNRWA. Most donor countries have no problem doing so. The exception is the United States, which, due to the Taylor Force Act, does not transfer funds directly to the Palestinian Authority.
However, alternative solutions can be found through other aid agencies operating in the West Bank, such as USAID or UNICEF. In the future, suitable solutions can be found for each specific region in the Middle East where UNRWA operates, based on its specific needs and the given situation: Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
It can be assumed that the Palestinians will oppose such moves, and it will force them to explicitly state that they see a direct link between the existence of the agency and the fulfillment of their demand for return. Such a course of action will put them in a compromising position since they have managed to blame the continuation of the conflict solely on the Israeli side.
A gradual closure of UNRWA will focus attention on the fact that the struggle between us and the Palestinians revolves around the very existence of the State of Israel and not withdrawal from territories. Such understanding will hinder the political struggle in the international arena and lead to greater consensus within Israeli society, which is divided regarding its responsibility for the continuation of the conflict.
In the long run, the closure of the agency may trigger voices in Palestinian society that challenge the myth of return and start considering peaceful relations with the State of Israel instead of persisting in their current stance.
Over the weekend, the Palestinian Authority buried the ancient Hasmonean fortress "Tel Aroma" under thousands of tons of dirt and destroyed much evidence of the existence of the historic Jewish site.
Massive construction work was carried out by the Palestinian Authority last Saturday in the Hasmonean fortress of Tel Aroma, as part of which thousands of tons of dirt were poured on the slopes of the ancient Hasmonean fortress. Following the report of the destruction, the archeology department of Judea and Samaria worked to stop the construction, but during the afternoon tractors resumed and continued the destruction.
The dirt spillway almost completely blocks two ancient water reservoirs that were uncovered, which were used by the Hasmoneans. These piles of dirt are added to the previous destruction of the mound in the area which has been going on for several years and includes the shaving of the top of the mound, a massive theft of antiquities, and the construction of the "Mosque of the Martyrs" on the site.
Tel Aroma is an archaeological park identified with the biblical site of Aroma, which was the ruling city of Abimelech, topped by a Hasmonean fortress with an impressive water system that functioned as a ruling city during the Hasmonean kingdom and a fortress to protect its northern border. The site is located in Area B according to the Oslo Accords, at the top of a prominent hill, about 850 meters above sea level, on a ridge north of the Samaria’s main highway and the village of Akbara, and south of the Gideonim ridge near the settlement of Itamar.
Under the auspices of the Jewish Sabbath when Israeli antiquities protection & enforcement employees are off, trucks, and excavators dug near the "Mosque of the Martyrs" and removed thousands of tons of dirt that were spilled on top of the mound. The dirt covered the Herodian wall on the site and blocked at least two ancient water reservoirs, which are among the largest found in Israel from this period.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Council, said that "This is shameful". According to him, "The Hasmonean fortress, one of the most important found, is being systematically vandalized. Part of the attempts of the pathetic 'Palestinian Authority.' I call on the government to make Tel Aroma a strategic destination for conservation before it's too late."
A mosque and road were built at the Hasmonean fortress in Tel Aroma and nobody saw this happening? ??https://t.co/1Nva8whx1R
— Gaia (@GAIA1010) August 4, 2022