Ban Ban

Secty Gen of the UN Ban-ki Moon visited Israel after the Gaza Donor's Conference in Cairo and met with PM Netanyahu.  Ban made several statements in his comments that are at least questionable if not factually incorrect:

1. Israel occupies Gaza:  Israel does NOT occupy Gaza, there is not one Israeli soldier or civilian within the borders ot Gaza.  This is pure Palestinian propaganda that officials such as Ban should not be repeating.  Since the disengagement policy of PM Sharon in 2005, all Israeli presence was removed from Gaza.  Israel does have a blockade of Gaza, that is obviously necessary in view of the recent actions of Hamas firing missiles into Israeli territory and digging attack tunnels under the Israeli border.  Such a blockade is legal under international law.  Israel allows food, drugs and building materials into Gaza, but only after they have been checked for illicit weapons and missiles.

2. Israeli settlements are illegal under international law:  This is not true, the settlements in the West Bank are legal because the West Bank was intended under the British Mandate to be part of the Jewish State.  Its occupation by Jordan between 1948-1967 was illegal and not recognized by international law.  There has been no Arab or Palestinian sovereignty over the West Bank ever, since the British defeated the Turks in WWI and were awarded a Mandate by the League of Nations in 1922 to establish a Jewish Homeland in Palestine (nothing was said about an Arab State in Palestine).  Therefore, absent a negotiated agreement, Israel has the right to build settlements in what is at most disputed territory.  However, some of the so-called settlements are actually suburbs of Jerusalem that was integrated into Israel in 1967.

3. Israel is acting provocatively on the Temple Mount: Actually Israeli forces are acting against the provocations of Palestinian rioters who are throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli worshippers below them at the Western Wall and preventing visitors from ascending to the Temple Mount.  The police fought pitched battles with hundreds of rioters and eventually managed to lock them within the Mosque complex,  while some were arrested.  This culminates a period of months in which the police have been criticized for allowing the Palestinian demonstrators to take over areas of the Temple Mount and continually prevent Israelis from praying and visiting there.

4. Netanyahu criticized the use of UN facilties in Gaza by Hamas: He stated that the UN is not acting vigorously to prevent UN facilties, including UNRWA schools and storage facilities, from being used as stores for Hamas missiles and also being used as firing points for Hamas missiles against Israeli civilian targets. Hamas uses UN centers filled with civilians as human shields in its attacks.

Overall one can see that the UN Secty Gen. is a shill for the Palestinian/Arab position and although he pays lip service to the fact that Israel is and has been a recognized member of the UN for 66 years, he speaks and acts as an advocate for the Palestinians. So much for the UN itself and its supposed system of international legitimacy.