{"id":53353,"date":"2017-06-21T17:05:19","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T15:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=53353"},"modified":"2017-06-21T06:53:54","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T04:53:54","slug":"29-00-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=53353","title":{"rendered":"US Spokesperson Rebukes Arab Diplomat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>US Spokesperson Rebukes Veteran Arab Diplomat Over Remark to UN Security Council Comparing Gaza to \u2018Concentration Camp\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Ben Cohen<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi<\/strong>. Photo: UN<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A veteran Arab diplomat\u2019s remark comparing the Gaza Strip with a \u201cconcentration camp\u201d at a Security Council briefing drew a sharp rebuke from the US mission to the United Nations on Tuesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIndecent and irresponsible remarks such as these are another example of the anti-Israel bias at the UN that has to end,\u201d a spokesperson for the US mission to the UN told The Algemeiner following the speech at a Security Council meeting on \u201cthe Middle East, including the Palestinian question\u201d given by Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister and UN envoy to Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n

During his address, Brahimi \u2014 who spoke as a member \u201cThe Elders,\u201d a body of global influencers gathered under the auspices of former US President Jimmy Carter \u2014 sympathetically quoted a Palestinian woman in Gaza who told him, \u201cIsrael has put us in a concentration camp.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Gaza has been under a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the violent seizure of power by the Islamist terror organization Hamas in 2007. The Egyptians eased some crossing restrictions with Gaza in December 2016, while Israel enables the constant resupply of civilian and humanitarian goods into the coastal enclave. The UN\u2019s own figures show that between 8,000-12,000 truckloads of goods cross from Israel into Gaza each month, including construction materials, medical supplies, IT hardware, foodstuffs and hygiene products.<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, slammed Brahimi for having made \u201cno mention of Israel\u2019s legitimate right to defend its citizens.\u201d Israel has faced three wars launched by Hamas from Gaza in the previous decade.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Security Council has provided a platform to antisemitic comments and a malicious blood libel,\u201d Danon declared in a statement. \u201cThis one-sided obsession with Israel is beyond the pale. To accuse the Jewish state of using concentration camps is not only despicable, but it degrades the Security Council and the UN as a whole. We demand that the Security Council renounce Brahimi\u2019s statement immediately.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brahimi is no stranger to controversies arising from his comments about Israel or Jews more broadly. In 2009, he told the Algerian daily Liberte that \u201cthe Jewish-Zionist lobby is controlling political life in the US and can pass any decision in Congress almost unanimously.\u201d One year later, Israel\u2019s then-ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, accused Brahimi of \u201cprejudice, bigotry and antisemitism\u201d after the Algerian described Israel and its policies as \u201cthe great poison in the region.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The US spokesperson added that American diplomats at the UN had been aware that Brahimi\u2019s presentation might spark uproar. \u201cWe insisted on having an alternative briefer, which is why Michael Doran spoke today,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doran \u2014 a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC who served as senior director in the National Security Council under President George W. Bush \u2014 told the Security Council the UN \u201croutinely accords Palestinian-Israeli relations a special status that hardly seems justified on the basis of objective observation.\u201d He then criticized the UN for its lack of attention to a range of other regional security challenges, such as Iran\u2019s arming of the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Addressing the prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, Doran said, \u201cThe key lesson of the 1967 war is that peace is achieved not by United Nations intercession but by direct negotiations between the parties.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In her speech at the briefing, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley spotlighted the continued rule of Hamas in Gaza.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to pressure Hamas to end its tyranny over the people of Gaza.\u201d Haley stated. \u201cWe should designate Hamas as a terrorist organization in a resolution, with consequences for anyone who continues to support it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Haley challenged the Security Council\u2019s members to bring Israel and the Palestinian Authority closer together as a means of defeating terrorism in the region. \u201cThis council can go and do the thing it always does, which is pick a side,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if you saw what I saw, if you see the terrorist activity that is happening in that area right now, you would understand that [\u2026] pitting the two sides against each other is only strengthening the terrorists.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Watch Michael Doran of the Hudson Institute address the UN Security Council:<\/span><\/p>\n

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