UN Watch's call
on U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power to take action after UNRWA tried to use
Christmas for partisan political ends has been widely shared on
Facebook and featured in the following Algemeiner media report.
WATCHDOG CALLS FOR DISCIPLINARY ACTION AGAINST UNRWA
AFTER SPOKESMAN DEMANDS BBC USE WORDS ‘ISRAELI OCCUPATION’ IN REPORT ON
CHRISTMAS.
For the full article go to: UN Watch Briefing http://tinyurl.com/gpacxt9
December 25, 2015 -- Geneva-based
watchdog UN Watch, which monitors the United Nations, on Friday called for
disciplinary action against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
and its spokesperson after the latter demanded the BBC use the words “Israeli
Occupation” in its news coverage of Christmas in Bethlehem.
The group called on U.S. Ambassador
Samantha Power to “take remedial measures against UNRWA and its spokesman Chris
Gunness for engaging in partisan advocacy— breaching its neutrality promise
under the 2015 UNRWA-U.S. Framework for Cooperation.”
The watchdog said Ambassador Power
should also condemn UNRWA for violating UN resolutions that require the agency
to provide humanitarian services in line with the principles of “neutrality and
impartiality.”
UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness made
the demand on Thursday on Twitter, claiming an “amazing lack of context” in the
BBC report, and alleging that it “needs correction.”
UN Watch blasted spokesman Gunness,
saying he “notably did not ask BBC to mention murder, persecution and ethnic
cleansing of Christians in Palestinian areas and throughout the Middle East, as
documented before the UN in compelling testimony by Father Gabriel Naddaf, who
noted that ‘Israel is the only Mideast country not persecuting Christians.'”
The watchdog said its statement was
part of a sustained effort to hold UNRWA accountable for its anti-Israel
advocacy.
In October, the group released a
report documenting at least 10 different UN staffers who used social media to
incite racial hatred, antisemitism, and Palestinian stabbing and shooting
attacks against Israeli Jews.
That
same month UNRWA admitted that “in a number of cases” its employees were
subjected to disciplinary action, and several were suspended.
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