The Israeli Foreign Ministry has issued a scathing denunciation of the United Nations High Commisisoner of Refugees.

The condemnation attacks what the ministry refers to as the “high commissioner’s utterly shortsighted press release regarding the situation in Gaza,” in which the high commissioner held Israel responsible for the “humanitarian crisis” affecting the Palestinians in Gaza.

In the words of the statement of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, “Most disturbing is the way she casually refers to Palestinian aggression in the very last sentence of her statement, as almost an afterthought.”

Israel claims that “overall responsibility for the situation in the Gaza Strip lies with Hamas.”

The terror group, the Jewish state says, “invests all of its resources in arms and terrorism instead of providing for the civilians that it brutally controls.”

Hamas and affiliated Palestinian terrorist groups have “fired more 170 rockets and mortars at Israel during the past 10 days, with 25 slamming into Israel over the weekend alone.”

The Israel Foreign Ministry went to accuse UNHCR as colluding with the Hamas press strategy, adding, “it is disappointing to see the high commissioner fall victim to Hamas’ cynical manipulation of the media, and reprint blatant misinformation in her press release.”

The Israelis complained the U.N. agency has allowed itself to become part of the Palestinians’ political game, and consequently, it has dealt with the situation in a less than even-handed manner.

“Israel expects the High Commissioner to investigate the facts before issuing one-sided statements about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and to begin by forcefully condemning the perpetrators of terror,” the foreign ministry said.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com.

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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