Kiwis for Balanced Reporting on the Middle East
November 21, 2011
UNESCO And The U.N. — What is all the fuss about?
By Michael Kuttner
Do taxpayers realise that their hard earned money is being used to fund organisations which are engaged in deligitimising and demonising Israel? The United Nations and UNESCO are two examples where double standards rule and hypocrisy reigns. You are never likely to read about it in your local media and in order to understand the full scope of this scandalous situation, please read on for further enlightenment.
The attempt by the Palestinian Authority to bypass direct negotiations with Israel and instead pressure the International Community to unilaterally recognise them as a bona fide State with defined borders is causing waves. Lost amongst all the rhetoric, declarations and hyperbole are the real reasons behind these moves and their implications for a negotiated peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. What lies behind this sudden campaign to avoid talking and instead aim for an imposed unilateral decision which in effect ignores the legal and historical rights of one side, namely Israel? Here are the hidden motives and likely consequences of this latest attempt to deligitimise the Jewish State.
Israel is generally portrayed in the media as being responsible for the breakdown and lack of progress in peace talks. As a consequence, according to current media wisdom, the Palestinian Arabs have no alternative than to run to the United Nations for an imposed solution. The facts, however, reveal that despite a 10 month settlement building freeze having been and gone, it is the Palestinian Authority which still refuses to talk. Overlooked by the media is the fact that from 1967, negotiations took place with Arafat and others when there was no freeze, so obviously settlements were never an obstacle in the past. In fact, as a result of these negotiations, many settlements were dismantled, Jews transferred and territory evacuated. The end result of course was that instead of receiving peace, Israel instead received rockets, missiles and terror targeting its towns, schools, kindergartens, Synagogues and civilians. It is Abbas and his colleagues who refuse to talk. Why is this? What is their agenda?
The reasons are there for all to see but the problem is that neither politicians nor the media want to see them. They would rather ignore reality, scatter red herrings and repeat outworn slogans. The unvarnished truth is clear; in fact it is articulated on a daily basis by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Negotiating with Israel would entail the Palestinian Arabs acknowledging the legal right of the Jewish People to their ancient homeland. That is the nub of the problem, because Israel’s so called peace partners, the allegedly ‘moderate’ Abbas included, are too busy inculcating their population with a theology of hate, deligitimisation and denial of any sort of Jewish attachment, connection or association with the Land of Israel. It therefore logically follows that if this is your policy, it is impossible to negotiate any sort of compromise which recognises Jewish legitimacy and sovereignty in territory which has had a Jewish presence for over 3,000 years. No wonder the Palestinian Authority is side stepping any such historical reality and instead is trying to hoodwink the International Community to do the same, namely to ignore history and past legally binding international agreements.
This revisionist brainwashing has succeeded in Israel being pilloried by politicians and media alike, resulting in misinformed & unbalanced presentation of events. Furthermore the United Nations has been hijacked by a motley collection of non democracies, repressive regimes and abusers of human rights. If any further proof is required it has been provided once again by the Palestinian Authority itself. Within 24 hours of being admitted to UNESCO, an act which in itself is a farce because the PA is neither a country nor as yet recognized by the UN as such, the deligitimisation of Israel & Judaism swung into action. It was announced with great fanfare that UNESCO which ostensibly exists to promote & preserve educational, cultural & historical heritages, is being asked to declare a multitude of ancient Jewish sites as exclusively Islamic. Therefore Jerusalem, Hebron, The Cave of the Patriarchs & Rachel’s Tomb, to mention just a few, will be erased from Jewish history and a new fictionalised identity will be bestowed by this UN body. At the behest of its newest member, the overwhelming majority will rewrite facts and wipe out 3,000 years of Jewish identity, to be replaced with a mythical narrative designed to deligitimise Israel.
New Zealand contributes money to the United Nations and UNESCO. It’s abstention on the vote to admit the Palestinian Authority to the latter organisation was at least well founded. Anything less would have signified acquiescence to the fraudulent agenda of those who are really avoiding peace and tolerance and moreover are promoting the disgraceful distortion of UNESCO’s original charter.
The final question which needs to asked, of course, is why New Zealand taxpayers’ money continues to support bodies which foster such travesties of justice. The time is long overdue for democracies such as New Zealand to demand that UNESCO and the UN itself return to their founding values. Failure to do so will merely make New Zealand complicit in the continuing charade of double standards so prevalent when it comes to dealing with those whose sole aim is the elimination of the Jewish State.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who was for many years actively involved with several Jewish Communal organisations. He is now retired, lives with his family in Israel and volunteers at the Israel News Resource Agency in Jerusalem.