Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded an end to the continuous senseless suffering in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Wednesday, telling the General Assembly that “the massive deaths and destruction in Gaza have shocked and shamed the world.”
Ban urged the international community to support the enormous task of rebuilding Gaza, providing humanitarian aid to thousands in need and treating the wounded.
“We will build again, but this must be the last time to rebuild,” the U.N. chief told the 193-member world body. “This must stop now. They must go back to the negotiating table.”
“We must spare no effort to turn the current calm into a durable cease-fire that addresses the underlying issues of the conflict.”
He said that means ending weapons smuggling into and rocket fire from Gaza, opening its crossings, lifting Israel’s blockade and bringing the Hamas-ruled strip back under a unified Palestinian government.
Ban also called on Hamas to honor past commitments made by Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization, including the right of the state of Israel to exist.
The U.N.’s deputy humanitarian chief, Kyung-wha Kang, said the United Nations and its partners have appealed for $367 million to address immediate needs for over 500,000 people — more than one-quarter of Gaza’s 1.8 million population — who “fled for their lives with nothing.” She said 65,000 people who have lost everything because their homes were reduced to rubble.
Kang painted a grim picture of what she called the “utter devastation” in Gaza: 144 schools and other facilities damaged; a public health system “on the verge of collapse” with one-third of hospitals, 14 primary health care clinics and 29 ambulances damaged; more than one million people without access to water and very limited electricity; and the prevalence of unexploded ammunition.
Kang said the lack of electricity means hospitals can’t power critical machinery, food production will decrease and water and sewage can’t be pumped. Sewage back-ups could contaminate water, making the outbreak of disease “a very serious risk,” she said.
Ban said the United Nations understands Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas rockets, but “the horror that was unleashed on the people of Gaza” raises serious questions about international law and distinguishing between civilians and combatants.
U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay told the assembly that “any attacks in violation of these principles, on civilians, homes, schools and hospitals, must be condemned, and may amount to war crimes.”
She told the assembly by videoconference that the casualty toll in this conflict — nearly 1,900 Palestinians, the vast majority civilians, and 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians — tops conflicts in 2008-2009. Kang said at least 122 Palestinian families lost three or more family members.
Pillay stressed that there has been no accountability for the conflicts in 2008-2009 and in 2012. She said the U.N. Human Rights Council’s new Commission of Inquiry will present a report in March 2015.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor said the only way to restore sustained peace in Israel and Gaza is to disarm Hamas and demilitarize Gaza. “And the international community must divorce itself from the romantic notion of Hamas as ‘freedom fighters,'” he said.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, accused Israel of “savagery.” He said the Palestinians seek both a durable cease-fire and an end to the Israeli blockade “which has suffocated and disfigured life in Gaza for the past eight years.”
(AP)
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9 Responses
Moon and Pillay are so ridiculous that they do not deserve the dignity of a response. Anything that allows these jungle animals access to any form of weapon is unacceptable.
They need to stop the nonsense about civilians. Those people were murdered by Hamas, and that needs to be stated openly. Until they recognize that, they are unworthy of the responsibilities they were given.
“Recognize Israel”? Is he kidding? They recognize Israel alright. They are the enemy and need to be wiped off the map. That has become the entire existence of Hamas, the rest of the terror groups, and of radical Islam. It is an ideology, not a religion, and it will only be eliminated when those who adopt it are removed. Long term truce? What have you been drinking? These bloodthirsty beasts cannot come to the negotiating table. For one, they do not recognize the sanctity of the spoken or written word. Secondly, their commitment or promise is worthless. Their track record of breaking commitments is legendary, and consistent. They cannot be left with any trace of authority anywhere.
Mr Moon must have been confused by the tales of Chris Gunness, the Hamas UN representative. The UN is not serious at all. How do you fund terror. You should dismantle terror and not encourage it. You want the world to give funds to a violent people as well as some crooked lot who use terror to extort money from people.
I think his name is Mr. Ban not Mr. Moon as they write last name first.
Someone give the monkey a banana
Why doesn’t Ban withhold all UN aid until Hamas disarms and recognizes Israel? Unless these conditions are met there will be future Hamas attacks and Israeli response. In the event of future rocket attacks there will be a need for a future rebuilding. So either don’t bother rebuilding now or demand disarmament and recognition.
Mr. Moon should procure a 1 way ticket to Syria, and board the next flight to Syria, and address all of the above sentiments of his to Assad of Syria.
This guy is either god stupid or he’s just not paying attention. I’m not sure which is worse. Either way I don’t think he has any relevance & I can’t imagine how anyone can care about what he says.
I think that the world must recognize that the usefulness of the UN has most definitely run its course. Whatever benefit to humanity it could have served has long been proven to not even be on their agenda. How do you allow 3rd World regimes and dictatorships to be heads of councils and committees. The idea of the UN was that democracies do not go to war with other democracies without good cause because the leaders are afraid to be dispatched from office the following electoral cycle. Those democracies were meant to band together to be a frightening and threatening force against belligerent states where the leaders do not have these fears. The UN is made up of so many dictatorships and belligerent nations that it is now a contradiction to its own efforts. Time and again their failure to recognize real threats to world peace and regional conflict (like the Iraq war lead by the US and Rwanda) has proven without doubt that the continued funding of such an organization is a simple waste of money. If contributing nations want to give money to a true cause, such as the murder of Buddhists by the dictatorial Chinese government, then they can find a way to transfer those funds directly. In fact if all the nations stop funding the UN with its natural Arab/Muslim bloc, they will have even more money to send of truly worthy causes.
That moonki is a fool.