{"id":11986,"date":"2018-08-18T19:26:27","date_gmt":"2018-08-18T19:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11986"},"modified":"2018-08-18T19:26:27","modified_gmt":"2018-08-18T19:26:27","slug":"un-chief-proposes-options-to-protect-palestinians-israel-says-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11986","title":{"rendered":"UN chief proposes options to protect Palestinians, Israel says \u2018no\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1358251\/middle-east\" readability=\"135\">\n<p>\nUNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday presented four options aimed at boosting the protection of Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territories, from sending UN rights monitors and unarmed observers to deploying a military or police force under UN mandate.<\/p>\n<p>But the report has been rejected by the Israelis.<br \/>\nIsrael\u2019s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement late Friday that \u201cthe only protection the Palestinian people need is from their own leadership.\u201d<br \/>\n<br \/>\n\u201cInstead of suggesting ways to protect the Palestinian people from Israel, the UN should instead hold the Palestinian leadership accountable for continually endangering its own people,\u201d Danon said.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n\u201cThe report\u2019s suggestions will only enable the Palestinians\u2019 continued rejectionism.\u201d<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe proposals were contained in a report requested by the General Assembly in response to a surge of violence in Gaza, where 171 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since late March.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe UN chief stressed that for each of the options, cooperation by Israel and the Palestinians would be necessary. It remained unlikely however that Israel would agree to the proposals.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nIn the 14-page report, Guterres proposed:<br \/>\n<br \/>\n\u2022 Providing a \u201cmore robust UN presence on the ground\u201d with rights monitors and political officers to report on the situation.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n\u2022 Pouring in more UN humanitarian and development aid to \u201censure the well-being of the population.\u201d<br \/>\n<br \/>\n\u2022 Creating a civilian observer mission that would be present in sensitive areas such as checkpoints and near Israeli settlements, with a mandate to report on protection issues.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n\u2022 Deploying an armed military or police force, under a UN mandate, to provide physical protection to Palestinian civilians.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nA UN mandate for a protection force would require a decision from the Security Council, where the United States could use its veto power to block a measure opposed by Israel.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nA small European-staffed observer mission was deployed in the West Bank city of Hebron in 1994, but Israel has since rejected calls for an international presence in flashpoint areas.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nIn the report, Guterres said the United Nations was already undertaking many protection initiatives but that \u201cthese measures fall short\u201d of the concerns raised in a General Assembly resolution adopted in June.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nIn that measure, the 193-nation assembly condemned Israel for Palestinian deaths in Gaza and tasked Guterres with the drafting of proposals for \u201can international protection mechanism\u201d for the Palestinians.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nGuterres argued that a political solution to the conflict was needed to address the safety of Palestinians but that \u201cuntil such a solution is achieved, member-states may further explore all practical and feasible measures that will significantly improve the protection of the Palestinian civilian population.\u201d<br \/>\n<br \/>\n\u201cSuch measures would also improve the security of Israeli civilians.\u201d<br \/>\n<br \/>\nOn Friday, Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians taking part in protests along the Gaza border and 270 other Palestinians were wounded.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nIsrael has defended its use of live ammunition in Gaza by invoking its right to self-defense. One Israeli soldier was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper in July.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n\u201cThe targeting of civilians, particularly children, is unacceptable,\u201d Guterres said in the report, adding that \u201cthose responsible for violations of international humanitarian law must be held accountable.\u201d<br \/>\n<br \/>\nUN efforts to ensure the well-being of Palestinians must strengthened, he added, singling out the funding crisis at the UN\u2019s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA as being \u201cof particular concern.\u201d<br \/>\n<br \/>\nUNRWA is facing a major budget shortfall after President Donald Trump\u2019s administration decided to withhold its contribution to the agency.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe report released to all UN member-states comes amid a vacuum in Middle East peace efforts as European and other big powers await a peace plan from the Trump administration that has been under discussion for months.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nUN diplomats have recently begun questioning whether the US peace plan will ever materialize.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe United Nations has warned that a new war could explode in Gaza.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nIsrael and Palestinian militants in Gaza, including its Hamas rulers, have fought three wars since 2008.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday presented four options aimed at boosting the protection of Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territories, from sending UN rights monitors and unarmed observers to deploying a military or police force under UN mandate. But the report has been rejected by the Israelis. Israel\u2019s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}