Swiss photographer Michael Grob on his work with Cambodian landmine victims: "Unlike in Afghanistan which is still in a state of war, we had to learn to adjust to the reality of such an amount of mines still being in Cambodian soil so long after the fighting has stopped. It was at times very difficult for me to deal with the impression left by the very high number of mine inflicted casualties - especially those of injured children. The work of the UN in Cambodia is, in my eyes, of utmost importance. It is for some communities the only opportunity for some kind of future. The situation touched me deeply and profoundly...my work for the United Nations mine action - as insignificant as it might be in the bigger picture - shall go on as long as needed." (©2011 Michael Grob)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Efforts to get rid of landmines are making good progress in many countries and funding is being maintained despite government budget constraints, a key meeting in Cambodia that closed 2 December shows. But work remains, with 4,000 new victims of landmines each year: six people died in Pursat Province, Cambodia, which hosted the meeting, Thursday 1 December when their truck triggered a mine.
The 11th meeting of the States Parties, the 158 nations that are part of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention finished in Phnom Penh with several strong commitments.
The Netherlands stated that “despite cuts in other areas, the government remains convinced of this matter” and it will maintain its €15 million annual contribution to demining and victim assistance.
Austria is increasing its 2012 funding slightly, to €1.9 million.
Cambodia funding stepped up
Austria announced its first contributions to demining and victim assistance in Cambodia, totaling €400,000. New Zealand, too, will contribute to a demining project in northeastern Cambodia: more than US$ 1 million in 2012.
Burundi bright spot
Cheering news came from Burundi, which says it has completed demining, a full three years ahead of the deadline to which it was committed. It is the 19th country to be declared mine-free.
Myanmar told the landmine ban meeting in Cambodia at the end of November that it is carefully considering the matter (Photo, ©2011, AP Mine Ban Convention)
The meeting, with 1,000 delegates taking part, marked progress in a number of areas and made media headlines over the first-ever participation by Myanmar, as an observer.
The isolated nation has been making commitments to reform, and at the land-mine ban meeting it said that “thorough study of the treaty will be continued”.
Its actions will be watched closely; it is one of three countries, along with Qaddafi’s Libya and Israel, who have been accused of laying mines in 2011.
“Convincing evidence” Syria is using mines
There is also “convincing evidence”, the group says, that Syria has used mines this year.
Tuvalu and South Sudan took their seats as the Convention’s newest adherents. Finland announced that it is on the verge of becoming the 159th to join the Convention.
Fifteen States that have not yet joined the Convention attended as observers, “signaling their openness to engage in a discussion on the devastating impact of anti-personnel mines”, a meeting press release states. The US is one of these and it reported that it is continuing to review its landmine policy.
Other signs of progress reported by the meeting: “Turkey reported the destruction of all stockpiled anti-personnel mines: 3 million mines. Burundi and Nigeria declared completion of their mine clearance obligations. Guinea Bissau, Jordan and Uganda announced that they will complete their demining programmes in coming months.”
A major and often under-funded part of the States’ commitments is helping survivors. Meeting host Cambodia, one of the most affected countries, says it is “assessing its national action plan on disability with a view to preparing a revised plan in 2012.”
Britain, Germany fail to meet commitments to demine
Germany is one of four countries with new reports of mine contamination that are falling far behind on their commitments to demine.
The town of Koblenz, Germany is the site this weekend of a massive project to defuse a bomb with 3,000 tons of explosives left over from the second world war; 45,000 people are being evacuated from their homes to allow the army and experts to get rid of it. The bomb became apparent this year due to lower water levels in the Rhine, reports NPR.
Britain has failed to clear any mines in the Falklands for the second year in a row.
“The UK has consistently failed to meet their clearance obligations under the treaty, and now have to clear more than 110 mined areas across over 7km2 in less than seven years,” the group notes.
Uganda landmine survivors met in March 2012 (photo ©2011 Landmine Monitor / D Osman)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – There is some good news on the landmine front, the “Landmine & Cluster Munitions Monitor 2011″ (full report online), issued 23 November reports, but it is dampened by news that three countries laid landmines this year, with two of them, Israel and Libya confirmed.
Myanmar is the third suspect, and four non-state armed groups laid mines as well.
Record ordnance cleared
On the brighter side:
- at least 200km2 of mined areas were cleared by 45 mine action programs in 2010, the highest annual total ever recorded by the Monitor; 198km2 in 2009, the previous record, and 160 km2 in 2008
- more than 388,000 antipersonnel mines and over 27,000 anti-vehicle mines were destroyed during this clearance
- programmes in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Croatia, Iraq, and Sri Lanka together accounted for more than 80% of recorded clearance
- an additional 460km2 of former battle area was reportedly cleared, destroying in the process more than 1.2 million items of unexploded ordnance; largest totals: Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Lao PDR.
Eighty percent of the world’s nation, 158 countries, have now joined the Landmine Ban Treaty. Donor contributions for mine action rose to $637 million, a record high, with 31 countries contributing. Five main mine action donors—the US, European Commission, Japan, Norway, and Canada—accounted for 64% of all funding.
Eighty-seven states have completed the destruction of their stockpiles, including Iraq, who was added to the list in June 2011.
5% increase in new victims
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Iran Friday 4 November suggested the US is setting the countries on a collision course, as the US and Britain “advance contingency plans”, according to the Guardian, for an attack on Iran, should new fighting break out in the Middle East. Tensions are rising in the US and the UK over Iran’s latest nuclear buildup at a time when Syria is taking a hard line against protesters, while Israeli leaders are talking about a possible attack on Iran. The news dominates some European and Israeli media, but is hardly making waves in the US.
Links to other sources: Guardian, Jerusalem Post
Euronews video
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government said Wednesday night 2 November that it condemns Israel for two new measures, voted by the Israeli cabinet Tuesday, shortly after Unesco admitted Palestine as a member.
Bern stopped short of calling the measures retaliatory, but it notes that the decision by Tel Aviv to “speed up construction of several thousand additional housing units in the settlements in and around East Jerusalem” is illegal and constitutes a violation of international law”.
The Swiss Federal Council also says that it is “preoccupied by the Israeli government’s announcement concerning a possible freeze on transferring funds to the Palestinian Authority. Such a decision would be contrary to Israel’s international obligations. Switzerland calls upon the Israeli authorities to continue to turn over the tax revenues collected in the name of the Palestinian Authority. These funds make up a significant part of the Palestinian Authority’s budget.”
Switzerland abstained from the Unesco vote on Palestine, but swissinfo cited a statement Monday night by Rodolphe Imhoof, Swiss permanent delegate to Unesco in Paris: “If Switzerland abstained in the voting, it’s because it believes that this debate should not be held in the context of an organisation whose role is a technical one, such as Unesco,.” Imhoof added that the matter was one for the political organs of the UN to decide.
The Israeli government has denied charges that the two cabinet decisions are retaliatory, but AFP quotes an unnamed Israeli official as saying the measures were a “punishment” for the vote.
Palestinian envoy raises ire of Canadian gov’t
Egyptian TV’s interview with Shalit shocks some as exploitation
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – It is not being hailed as a gesture with implications for Middle East peace, but there is widespread relief over the release of Israeli prisoner Galid Shalit by Palestine’s Hamas after five years, and 477 Palestinians who have been held for different lengths of time.
Mid-morning Swiss time Shalit’s arrival in Egypt had been confirmed to Israeli authorities, who loaded 477 prisoners onto Red Cross buses, for release to the West Bank and Gaza, according to the Jerusalem Post. They will cross into Egypt, and from there bused to their homes, once Shalit is on Israeli territory. “Schalit will be guarded by soldiers of the Israel Air Force’s 669 unit, who will accompany him until he is home safe in Mitzpe Hila,” the Israeli newspaper reports.
Another 500 Palestinians are scheduled to be released at a later date.
Palestine remains in the news in Canada for an unrelated incident: “Linda Sobeh Ali, the chargé d’affaires of the Palestinian delegation in Ottawa, is just one cut above persona non grata,” reports the Globe & Mail. “The Canadian government called her in for a high-level dressing down, made a formal protest to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and has decided to ‘limit communication’ with her until a replacement arrives.” She upset Ottawa by tweeting a link to a YouTube video of a tearful Palestinian girl who is shouting “with passion, reciting a poem in Arabic, ‘I am Palestinian.’ The English subtitles on the video include a passage where millions are called ‘to a war that raze the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews.’”
Shalit was interviewed by Egyptian TV before he was transferred to Israel. The 24-year-old appeared short of breath but otherwise healthy and he said he was nervous. Israeli media reported that several officials were shocked at what they saw as “exploitation” by media before he was released to his homeland.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, opened the UN General Assembly in New York Wednesday with a plea to resolve the Israeli-Palestine impasse, saying that while Israel needs security, Palestine needs statehood. The remarks were made in the presence of US President Obama and Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas.
The US insists that Palestinian membership in the UN can come only through a negotiated settlement and says it will use its veto to stop a bid for membership that Abbas says he will announce during a scheduled speech to the UN Friday.
Participants of the 18th session of Human Rights Council in Geneva - Photo Jean-Marc Ferré UNIS
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A panel of five independent UN rights experts reporting to the Human Rights Council unanimously rejected the conclusion of the Palmer Report that says Israel’s blockade of Gaza is legal.
On a statement produced by the UN in Geneva on 13 September, the panel says it rejected the Palmer Report findings because the blockade had subjected Gazans to collective punishment in “flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law.”
“The Palmer report was aimed at political reconciliation between Israel and Turkey. It is unfortunate that in the report politics should trump the law,” said Richard Falk, Special Rapporteur on human rights, on the statement.
According to the panel, the blockade should immediately cease as “the people of Gaza must be afforded protection in line with international law.”
For the United Nations experts, “decisive steps must be taken to defend the dignity and basic welfare of the civilian population of Gaza, more than half of whom are children.”
Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on the right to food said at least two-thirds of Gazan households are food insecure, and “evidence has shown that the so-called ‘easing’ of the blockade has not led this to improve.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Gazmend Turdiu, who presides over the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or Ottawa Convention, spoke out sharply against Israel’s renewed use of landmines, during a visit to Geneva 6 September to prepare for the Convention’s November meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Israel, which is not a party to the Convention signed by 156 states, has recently placed mines along the Syrian border. “New deployments of anti-personnel mines by Israel were openly acknowledged on 10 August by the Israeli Defence Force journal BaMachaneh, which described the emplacements of mines along the Syrian border,” the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention office in Geneva says in a statement. “Later, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate the International Campaign to Ban Landmines brought it to the international community’s attention.”
Turdiu says that “enhancing existing minefields as Israel has done, run counter to the norms that are accepted by the majority of states”, adding that “the insidious, indiscriminate nature of anti-personnel mines means they must be eradicated. It is our responsibility to make our concern about this objectionable behaviour widely known.”
About the AP Mine Ban Convention
The AP Mine Ban Convention office describes the treaty:
“The AP Mine Ban Convention was adopted in Oslo in 1997, opened for signature in Ottawa the same year and entered into force in 1999. To date 156 States are parties to the Convention, 152 of them no longer hold stocks. Almost 44 million mines have been destroyed by the States Parties. 34 of 50 States that at one time manufactured anti-personnel mines are now bound by the Convention’s ban on production. Most other parties have put in place moratoria on production and / or transfers of mines. Demining has resulted in millions of square metres of once dangerous land being released for normal human activity. was adopted in Oslo in 1997, opened for signature in Ottawa the same year and entered into force in 1999.
“To date 156 States are parties to the Convention, 152 of them no longer hold stocks. Almost 44 million mines have been destroyed by the States Parties. 34 of 50 States that at one time manufactured anti-personnel mines are now bound by the Convention’s ban on production. Most other parties have put in place moratoria on production and / or transfers of mines. Demining has resulted in millions of square metres of once dangerous land being released for normal human activity.”
The ICBL calls on Israel to immediately clear its minefields
Daniel Yuval testifying in Geneva against the use of landmines
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The Nobel Peace Prize laureat group International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) has lashed out at Israel for planting new mines, for the first time in over a decade, in the Golan Heights, near the Israeli-Syrian border.
Libya and Myanmar are the only other nations known to have planted landmines in recent years, a sign, says ICBL, of the extent to which their use has become stigmatized.
Reports of the new mines appeared in an Israeli military magazine, according to the ICBL, which says in a statement that “Major Ariel Iluz of the Israeli Defense Force engineering corps said new antipersonnel mines were recently planted in existing minefields ahead of expected protests around a UN vote on an independent Palestinian state in September.”
The mines are being laid, says the ICBL, to prevent “protesters from Syria moving into the Golan Heights”.
Israel is not among the 156 States Parties to the 1997 Mine Ban Convention, which bans all uses of the weapon. It has a reported 1.2 million landmines.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The case of a family in Israel who asked that their daughter’s eggs be harvested and frozen after she was declared brain dead 3 August may well be a world legal first, according to specialists interviewed by the Guardian in the UK and Ha’aretz news agency in Israel. The girl, Chen Aida Ayash, died following a car crash some days earlier.
The family has not issued a statement and it is not known why they wanted to save the eggs. Legal issues around saving the eggs of a woman who has died have arisen when spouses, formers spouses and parents of married women have been involved, but this appears to be the first time that a young, unmarried woman’s family has made such a request, which could raise new legal questions, outside Israel if not in the country, where the law says little, according to Ha’aretz.
The family agreed to donate their daughter’s organs after her death.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Israeli government says it will move more quickly to effect a number of social-economic reforms that involve taxes, a new housing programme, better access to social services and lower prices. Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet issued the statement Sunday 7 August after its weekly meeting, but the promise of reform comes on the heels of a Saturday night demonstration that saw at least 300,000 protesters turn up, across the country.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Jerusalem Post, NY Times, Xinhua
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – US Ambassador to the UN Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe used unusually strong words in a statement issued Friday 8 July to suggest that UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk should step down, saying that “his continued status as a UN mandate holder is a blight on the UN system”.
The US and Falk have tangled several times over his stance on Israel and Palestine, but Chamberlain Donahoe’s criticism Friday focuses tightly on Falk’s personal blog, which has been under fire for an anti-semitic cartoon. “I am repulsed by the recent cartoon posting to the personal blog written by Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on ‘the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.’, the ambassador’s statement says. “Mr. Falk’s continued comments and postings to his personal blog are deeply offensive, and I condemn them in the strongest terms.”
Falk for his part says he was unaware until it was pointed out to him the anti-semitic nature of the cartoon, which he then removed from his blog.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Iran test-fired 14 short-, medium- and long-range missiles Tuesday as part of its Great Prophet 6 military drills, Iran’s English language news agency Mehr says. It quotes Aerospace commander of Islamic Revolution Guard Corps Amir Ali Hajizadeh as saying that Iran’s missiles have the range of 2,000 km and can reach US bases in the region and also Israel, although both of these are well within previous missiles range from Iran.
Links to other sources: Fars news agency, Haaretz, Mehr, Xinhua
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasted no time in firmly saying no thanks to US President Barack Obama’s remark Thursday evening 19 May that Israel should withdraw to 1967 lines in its dispute with Palestine. Netanyahu quickly released a statement saying that Obama cannot renig on George Bush’s 2004 agreement with Israel that it would not have to go back to the older borders.
Netanyahu was not informed in advance of Obama’s “major” speech, adding to the tensions between the two leaders, report Israeli media, just five days before Netanyahu is to address the US Congress.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, Washington Post
He’s 17, Canadian, a heartthrob who has a concert in Tel Aviv Thursday 13 April, a practicing Christian who wants to see Israel’s holy places in peace, and a young man who may or may not have tried to line up a visit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Justin Bieber‘s trip has hit a few bumps, it appears.
Israel’s notoriously aggressive paparazzi have “stalked” him, according to the Jerusalem Post and no one will admit to attempting to set up a meeting with the prime minister, neither Bieber’s team nor the government, but Israeli media report that Bieber wanted a non-political visit while Netanyahu thought it might be a good idea to bring along children from the south, which has been the target of missiles recently.
The good news for the children from the south is that 700 of them will make it to the concert, thanks to donated tickets. And Bieber’s spokesperson told JTA news agency late Wednesday that the ministerial meeting was called off due to logistics problems.
Links to other sites: Jerusalem Post, JTA news agency, Los Angeles Times, NPR
$10 million to be sought to finance the project
Rolex Learning Center, EPFL in Lausanne (photo©, Peter Brodbeck)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – EPFL in Lauanne and the Hebrew University in Israel signed an agreement 28 March to form a new partnership in brain research. Finalizing the agreement was part of the visit of Israel’s President, Shimon Peres, to Switzerland.
The two have agreed to raise $10 million together for the first five years of operations, for joint laboratories, research projects and fellowships for graduate students.
The partnership is expected to focus on “brain mechanisms controlling behavior and cognition and to study effective methods for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Alzheimer’s and autism”, according to a statement issued in Israel.
Judge and UN report author says report would have been different if he’d known what he now knows
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Israel will ask the United Nations to revise the Goldstone Report on the 2008-2009 Gaza war, following publication 1 April of an Op-Ed article by judge Richard Goldstone in the Washington Post.
Goldstone says that the conclusions drawn by his fact-finding report for the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which included allegations that Israel may have intentionally targeted civilians, were based on less information than is now available.
“The final report by the U.N. committee of independent experts — chaired by former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis — that followed up on the recommendations of the Goldstone Report has found that ‘Israel has dedicated significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations of operational misconduct in Gaza’ while ‘the de facto authorities (i.e., Hamas) have not conducted any investigations into the launching of rocket and mortar attacks against Israel.’
“Our report found evidence of potential war crimes and ‘possibly crimes against humanity’ by both Israel and Hamas. That the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying — its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets.
“The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion.”
Goldstone does not go as far as “retracting” statements made in his report, as the Jerusalem Post reports, but he does say that “if I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.” The Guardian qualifies his article as having “expressed regret that his report may have been inaccurate.”
Apology, retraction, and greater documentation in the future
A senior Israeli defense department officer told the Jerusalem Post that Goldstone’s remarks will not be enough alone to stop a future investigation, and that Israel must document every action in Gaza in order to avoid another investigation.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Saturday said he will insist the UN rescind the report, according to Bloomberg and Israeli media, and South Africa’s IOL (Independent Online) news reports Monday that President Shimon Peres says he wants an apology from Goldstone.
US Jewish groups, notably the influential American Jewish Committee, over the weekend called for Goldstone to retract his report and ask the UN to approve a revised version, according to the Jerusalem Post. “‘The Washington Post is not the place for Judge Goldstone to recant the biased and damaging UN report he wrote on the Gaza conflict,’ said AJC Executive Director David Harris.”
Background story on Goldstone report and the UN Security Council, and initial report, October 2009 GenevaLunch
Israeli tank fire injured five people when a house in Gaza was hit, medics have told Reuters. The injuries were not confirmed by Israel, but if the information is accurate, its brings to 24 the number of people wounded in Gaza since Monday 21 March. Israel says it responded with air attacks after rocket and mortar fire from an area controlled by Hamas. Hamas, for its part, claimed responsibility for a dozen attacks on Israel over the weekend.
France has called on the two parties to use restraint.
The New York Times, which generally gives generous space to Israeli-Gaza conflict news, barely found room on its online “front” page for the story, in the face of continuing news from Libya and Japan.
Links to other sites: Jerusalem Post, New York Times, Reuters
Claims by former US presidential candidate Sarah Palin that she is on a purely private visit to Israel, where she stopped at Jerusalem’s Western Wall were undone somewhat by an analysis for CNN of her visit by a former consultant. Republican consultant Ford O’Connell, who worked on the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, told the US television network that foreign policy is Palin’s greatest weakness but that “‘Foreign policy is moving up the ladder. If you want to be president, you have to have a good understanding of the global economy in the 21st century.’”
The visit to Israel follows a stop in India.
Palin has not officially announced her candidacy. She was criticized by some observers in the last presidential race because she had rarely set foot outside the US, although she has travelled abroad more since 2008. Her first overseas trip was in 2007, when she visited Alaska National Guard troops in Kuwait, who served under the US president rather than the governor. She stopped off in Germany to visit US troops there at the time.
Links to other sites: Anchorage Daily News (2008), The Week
Swiss connection has been on US Watch List, may have brokered Zimbabwe deals
Update 23:25 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A court in Tel Aviv has indicted an Israeli military attaché who served in Bern from 2002 to 2005 for breach of trust and accepting bribes.
The case promises to put a spotlight on the murky international arms brokerage business, thanks in part to the attaché’s later role as chief executive of Israel-based Talon Security Consulting and Trading. Talon was founded with help from a well-known Swiss arms dealer/broker, Heinrich Thomet, according to Swiss parliamentary records.
Shmuel Avivi is accused in the Tel Aviv indictment of helping Thomet, a co-founder of Bruegger & Thomet (B&T), to develop its arms business in Israel while Avivi was at the Bern embassy.
Avivi is accused of accepting a cell phone from Talon. The company, according to Israeli media details of the indictment, paid Avivi’s phone bills and offered Avivi’s wife a Land Rover as well as putting her on the company’s bankroll. The Israeli court claims she did not work for the company.
Avivi’s job as military attaché involved promoting the Israeli arms industry, but the activities with which he is charged are strictly prohibited.
Company founded by Swiss may have brokered deals to move Serbian arms to Iraq
Two months after Avivi left his military post he became chief executive of the young company Talon, in October 2005.
Thomet stepped down from his role as president of B&T in October 2005, the Swiss commerce registry shows.
This is not the first time that Thomet’s name has appeared in connection with activities in the arms industry that have raised eyebrows and prompted questions.
Rock candy takes on a new meaning in Geneva, with $2.3m candy swap diamond heist (photo, Mario Sarto, wikipedia)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 61-year-old Israeli man accused in Geneva of stealing $2.3 million in diamonds from Alldiam, a Geneva diamond dealer, can be extradited to Switzerland to stand trial. A court in Jerusalem made the ruling Monday 21 February, according to Israeli media.
The man was arrested at his home in Ramat Gan in July 2010, after reportedly entering Israel under a false identity. His partner in the supposed crime had earlier been arrested in The Netherlands.
The two are suspected of replacing real diamonds they were being shown with candy ones, then smuggling the real jewels out of Switzerland. The theft, according to the extradition request, occurred in April 2009 at a meeting at Alldiam in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva.
It is not clear if the diamonds were rough or already cut and polished.
Alldiam was created by Jean-Pierre Hofmann in Geneva in 1979. The company cuts its own diamonds in Surat, India and sells them.
The Israeli man’s wife says he is being detained in Israel under poor conditions and that he is in weak health, arguments his lawyer used to no avail in the extradition hearings, according to Ynet.
UN Director-General Ban Ki-moon and IOC head Jacques Rogge meet in Lausanne
Sports for peace projects include Olympics work on achieving MDGs
IOC's Jacques Rogge with UN's Ban Ki-moon in Lausanne 25 January 2011 (photo ©2011, ioc/Richard Juilliart)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The heads of the United Nations and the Olympic movement met in Lausanne 25 January to review work they have done together since the UN gave the IOC observer status in 2010.
The move was linked to the IOC starting a number of sports for peace projects. The Tuesday meeting covered new joint efforts to make it easier for Palestinian and Israeli athletes to participate in sports competitions and the adoption by the UN of the Olympic Truce Resolution for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The meeting follows by five days a landmark “modus vivendi” understanding that was reached between the Israeli and Palestinian National Olympic Committees when the two met for the first time in Lausanne last week.
Part of the agreement calls for Israel to help Palestinian athletes train in order to be able to compete in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Namibia refugee camp project has IOC working on non-competitive sports agenda
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government Tuesday 11 January took to task the Israeli government for allowing the demolition of the Shepherd’s Hotel in East Jerusalem to go ahead, under the protection of Israeli armed forces. The hotel is being demolished to make way for a new housing settlement, which Switzerland points out is clearly in violation of international law.
“The 4th Geneva Convention, whose applicability extends over the entire occupied Palestinian territory, prohibits the Occupying Power from destroying personal or State-owned properties in the occupied territory with the exception of destruction rendered absolutely necessary by military operations, and it forbids the Occupying Power to transfer parts of its own civilian population into an occupied territory. Moreover, the construction of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory undermines the resumption of negotiations in view of realizing a two-state solution.”
The Swiss government says it is appealing to Israeli authorities to “respect International Law and to avoid any actions which might jeopardize the resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.”
A convoy of 1,000 tons of aid and medical supplies has crossed the land border from Egypt to Gaza, according to Ria-Novosti 3 January.
Earlier a ship carrying the aid worth $1 million for the Gaza Strip had left the Syrian port of Latakia headed for the Egyptian port of Al-Arish. The Israeli navy had been tailing the ship and contacted its captain by radio. The Asia to Gaza Solidarity Caravan was organized by Indian activists and has driven overland through Pakistan, Iran and Syria.
Only eight activists were allowed on board the ship; the others were flown to Egypt from Syria after waiting for one week in Syria. Egyptian authorities granted visas to activists from as far away as New Zealand, but denied visas to 46 people from Iran and Jordan.
After deliberating a week Egypt agreed to allow the aid to pass through the Rafa crossing into Gaza.
Violent winds and freezing rain wreaked havoc in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Egypt 11 and 12 December, as fishing boats were smashed by 10m waves along the Lebanese coast, small planes were tossed about at area airports, and sandstorms blew over Egypt. A Moldovan freighter sank off the coast of Israel but all 11 crew members were rescued. In northern Lebanon a woman was crushed in her car by a falling tree and Egyptian authorities blamed the storm on the collapse of a factory, which killed three workers.
The heavy rains turned to snow in the mountains along the coast, trapping drivers in their cars, and shipping through the Suez Canal was disrupted as most Egyptian ports were closed due to the heavy winds.
Links to other sites: Al-Jazeera, NPR
The US government has said it will no longer pursue efforts to persuade the Israeli government to freeze settlements in the occupied territories in order to resume stalled peace talks with the Palestinians. The USA promised Israel 20 Stealth fighter jets worth $3 billion and US vetoes on anti-Israel resolutions in the UN Security Council in exchange for a 90-day settlement freeze. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu was unable to persuade his coalition cabinet to accept the deal.
Palestinian negotiators had demanded a freeze on building settlements in the occupied West Bank as well as in East Jerusalem, which would become the capital of an independent Palestine, as a pre-requisite for continuing talks that were begun in September 2010.
It is not immediately clear what the Obama administration will propose next. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are arriving in Washington for talks and will attend the Saban Forum in Washington, DC where US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to give a speech 10 December.
Links to other sites: JerusalemPost, LA Times, Washington Post
Argentina has recognized an independent Palestinian State within the pre-1967 borders, the government announced 6 December. Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said, “the time has come to recognize Palestine as a free and independent state” in a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he read out to the press.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman noted that “this regrettable decision will not help at all to change the situation between Israel and the Palestinians.” A statement released later said: “Recognition of a Palestinian state is a violation of the interim agreement signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 1995, which established that the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will be discussed and solved through negotiations.”
US polititicians have called the decision “regrettable” and “severely misguided”. The move comes as part of a Palestinian strategy to gain UN support for an independent State. Peace talks between Israel and Palestine have bogged down amid Israel’s refusal to stop building settlements in the territories it occupied in the 1967 war.
The decision follows an similar announcement by Brazil. Uruguay and Paraguay are expected to follow suit in the new year.
Links to other sites: ABC News, Jerusalem Post
Israeli mine survivor’s uncomplicated prose begs for clearer political thinking
Daniel Yuval, age 11, addresses Geneva followup meeting to Cartagena Summit on implementing the Mine Ban Treaty
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Daniel Yuval is 11, an Israeli sixth grader who is in Geneva to make one thing perfectly clear to the world: it should get rid of its landmines and not another single child should be hurt by one. He appears to be getting the message across, both at home in Israel and further afield.
Daniel was enjoying the thrill of his first snow 6 February 2010, playing on a hillside in the Golan Heights with his father, older sister and a younger brothers, when he stepped on a landmine. He lost a leg to it, but gained a power for speaking out against landmines, which is literally moving mountains where adults have been able to achieve far less.
A bill was submitted 10 May 2010 to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, by 73 members, to establish a national mine action authority to manage the clearance of non-operational minefields. The bill followed Daniel’s address to the Knesset, asking them to take action.
Daniel Yuval during a break in Geneva, 29 November 2010
Israel is one of the 20 percent of countries that have not signed the Mine Ban Treaty. The 1997 treaty was implemented in 1999 and 156 States are signatories. Its web pages note: “The Mine Ban Treaty prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of antipersonnel mines. It is the most comprehensive international instrument for eradicating landmines and deals with everything from mine use, production and trade, to victim assistance, mine clearance and stockpile destruction.”
Israel and landmine groups estimate it has 260,000 mines.
Some 20 medical operations and 10 months later, with a prosthesis in place, Daniel has caught up on his schoolwork and is getting good grades, his father says. And he’s able to run faster than some of the kids in his class, Daniel says enthusiastically.
Daniel was in Geneva 29-30 November, brought by Roots of Peace. He gave a powerful speech (speech text in full) as part of the first followup meeting to the Cartagena Summit that took place in Colombia in November 2009. His audience included Micheline Calmy-Rey, Switzerland’s foreign minister, and Jakob Kellenberger, head of the ICRC (International Red Cross).
Daniel and Jerry White, founder of Survivor Corps, who also lost a leg on the Golan Heights when he was 20, will receive the 2010 Roots of Peace Global Citizens Award. Roots of Peace seeks to make sacred sites mine-free and safe for pilgrims and other visitors.
The pair spoke to GenevaLunch about Daniel’s experience and its impact on the current state of the Mine Ban Treaty. Daniel has been learning English for six months and hopes to perfect it so he can address the United Nations.
Israelis are closely watching the case of a woman whose partner has not been officially recognized as the father of their child because of the country’s “bastard clause”, reports the Jerusalem Post: “The Population Registry Law of 1965 states that no man can be listed as the father of a child unless he was married to the child’s mother or, in the case of unmarried parents, if the mother had not been married to another man 300 days prior to the child’s birth. The law stems from the Jewish religious law forbidding a woman to remarry for 90 days after a husband’s death or a divorce. The law is meant to prevent uncertainty over the father’s identity and to lift the suspicion of mamzer (bastard) status from any child subsequently conceived.”
The couple, whose child was born prematurely, are petitioning the Tel Aviv family court to allow the biological father’s name to be listed on the certificate, which remains blank for the name of the father.
The woman separated from her husband in January, filed for divorce in June, received divorce papers in September, became pregnant in October and her daughter was born in week 36 of the pregnancy.
The law was passed in 1965 and affects non-Jewish Israelis as well as those who subscribe to Jewish religious law. The father’s lack of legal recognition means that he cannot take part officially in raising the child, nor can he take the child abroad. The couple live together, giving them common law status, so the mother cannot receive single mother benefits.
Beware those who film themselves speeding and post it on Facebook: police in Israel have charged a man and two friends who were passengers with speeding and reckless driving after he drove 260kph in a 90kph zone, on the Tel-Aviv-Haifa coastal road, with his friends commenting and pushing him to go faster. One friend offered the video to Channel 2, which aired it and asked the police to comment, reports CNN. According to the Jerusalem Post, one of the friends afterwards told the television station that it was a gag and the trio’s car was actually going much slower, but police and the court were apparently not convinced. It’s the first time anyone has been arrested in Israel for a Facebook post, according to the Israeli newspaper.
Channel 2′s report, showing the speeders being questioned by the station about their antics, is still available on Facebook.
