Kawther Salam – Correction to the Speech in Favor of Israel by Ban Ki-moon
By Kawther Salam • Dec 3rd, 2008 at 19:16 • Category: Analysis, Features, Haitham's Choice, Israel, Newswire, PalestineDuring the event commemorating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinians, which I attended at the UN in Vienna, a message of UNSG Ban Ki-moon was read by Mr. Antonio Maria Costa, DG of the UN in Vienna.
I listened to the message read by Mr. de Costa, and I found that the language used in the speech of SG Ban Ki-moon was not fit for the occasion to the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinians. The speech was based on contradicting standards which ignore the UN resolutions related to the historical facts surrounding Palestine and Palestinians, and replaced them with improper phrases which honoring the criminal Israeli occupation and their alliance, and harms the feeling of Palestinian participants who live in the exile since 60 years ago.
SG Ban Ki-moon was wrong in almost all aspects in his speech. See it here
SG Ban Ki-moon ignored that the cause of the current situation is the disrespect by Israel for uncounted resolutions and pleas of the international community regarding Palestine and, the continued blocking of all good faith solutions to our problem in by the representations of the USA and UK in the security council. The statement of Ban Ki-moon read at the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinians was a complete abdication of the idea of an international community guided by the precepts of respect for each other, for laws and treaties, in favor of the real terror and cajoling of by the representatives of the main sponsors and promoters of genocide and terrorism around the world, namely Israel, followed by the USA and the UK.
I wonder why the UN, in the person of its General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, allows itself to forget over six decades worth of resolutions against the occupation and practices of Israel, which furthermore show that we Palestinians are clearly within our rights in everything which we have traditionally asked for, and in everything which several generations of Palestinians defending our homeland have done. Why does Mr. Ban Ki-moon try to make things look like there are no national and international laws which are clearly on our side, instead expressing his partiality with Israeli security, but at the same time ignoring the insecurity which all Palestinians have lived under since 60 years due to the criminal and terrorist Israeli occupation? Are the various institutions and courts of justice affiliated to the UN good for nothing more than to dispense paychecks to highly paid functionaries?
The speech of UNGS Ban Ki-moon at the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinians in Vienna is a scandal, and it shows the real face of the “International community”, which is in fact a collection of a puppets in the hand of American Jews and their Zionist organizations everywhere, which only care about the interests of Israel to the detriment of everybody else.
Mr. Ban Ki-moon stated that “Palestinians have been deprived of their inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination and statehood, for more than 60 years. Israelis live with an ever-present sense of insecurity. There is only one way to address such legitimate rights and fears: a peace agreement that results in an end of occupation, an end of conflict, and the creation of a State of Palestine living side-by-side in peace with the State of Israel”.
Sorry, this was a clear lie by SG Ban Ki-moon. The only nation who has lived insecurity and continuous terror and crimes for more than sixty years are the Palestinians. Israelis live with an ever-present sense of insecurity because of their crimes, murders, and because of what they steal from the Palestinians. They live with an ever-present sense of insecurity because they violate the UN resolutions and the International laws and treaties. These criminals should be punished according to the International laws and according to the laws of the nations from where they come. The UN should use its power to punish Israel of violating it’s resolutions the same way the UN punished Iraq, …. Why should we Palestinians accept the diktat of these thieves, murderers and terrorists one day longer?
The Palestinians are not guilty of sense of insecurity which the state of the Israeli occupation lives. Mr. Secretary General, I wonder why should the victims of Israel be responsible about the insecurity of their occupier? Even this is not logical in any laws. Why should Israel be accepted as a state by the international community of peoples after it has shown for over 60 years neither ability nor inclination to live peacefully with anyone, to abdicate by even by the most simple norms of convivency? Why Ban Ki-moon dose not say that the only one way to end the Israeli fears is implementing the UN resolutions?
Mr. Ban Ki-moon continued in his speech: “The Israeli and Palestinian leaders re-launched bilateral negotiations a year ago at Annapolis. They agreed to try to reach a peace treaty by the end of 2008″.
SG Ban Ki-moon is wrong. Israel and the USA launched a sham initiative at “negotiating” in bad faith with a group of corruptionists around President Abbas, who were chosen by the US and Israel, with plans to essentially give Israel everything.
I would like to ask Mr. Ban Ki-moon about the achievements which the Israeli and the Palestinian leaders attained after Annapolis, or even since Oslo agreements: where are they ? Well, here is one: one of the immediate “achievements” of these sham negotiations has been that the daughter of Ahmed Qureia, the chief “negotiator” in favour of his own pocket, was given the Israeli nationality. Palestine and Palestinians on the other hand have been subject to a genocidal campaign of closures and more crimes by the IDF and the illegal settlers than ever before. Under such conditions, no peace can be achieved.
Why does the UN and the International Community not end the farce of these so-called “negotiations” of Israel and their collaborators at once, at the same time forcing Israel to implement exactly all UN resolutions, all treaties and the International treaties? Why should we suffer even one more day under the criminal Israeli occupation? Why do the representatives of the International community legitimize negotiations with the thieves and murderers, while in their own countries they throw such recalcitrant criminals into jail?
“Mr. Ban Ki-moon added in his statements “I regret that this goal appears unlikely to be achieved. However, the parties have succeeded in creating trust and a framework where none existed only two years ago. We must not diminish that achievement. I commend the commitment made by President Abbas and Foreign Minister Livni at Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month to continue talks into next year, and to seek a full and final settlement. This process must resolve the permanent status issues of Jerusalem, settlements, borders, refugees, Security and water”.
What is SG Ban Ki-moon dreaming about? The only trust which has been built up during the shows at Sharm El-Sheikh and other places is strictly between Israel and a small group of Fatah people, chosen by the CIA and the Israeli occupation. The permanent status of Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, the Palestinian rights, the duties of the Jews, and other points, have already been established by broad consensus of the international community, using as a forum the very institutions which Mr. Ban Ki-moon heads.
Which negotiations does Mr. Ban Ki-moon support? These so-called “negotiations” and the whole range of bad faith maneuvers by the Israelis? It would be better, not the least for sake of the respect which the UN deserves as the only existing forum of all peoples and nations, that Mr. Ban Ki-moon keep to the decisions taken by the majority of states members of the institution which he heads, and not the wishes of a small group of pariahs among them.
“My biggest concern in the immediate period ahead is the situation on the ground. I strongly call on Israel to cease settlement activity, remove outposts, open Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem, and refrain from unilateral actions in Jerusalem, such as demolitions and evictions, which alter the status quo. I recognize Israel’s security concerns. But the improved environment of security cooperation must lead to an easing of closure in the West Bank, in order to increase stability and to bring about a much-needed boost to the Palestinian economy”.
While the situation on the ground is certainly worrying and the needs of the people of Gaza, but also in the West Bank are dire and should be taken care of immediately, Mr. Ban Ki-moon is wrong in his other statements as well. Where is the expression of concern for the security of us Palestinians in our all rights and property? We Palestinians are sick and tired of the “concerns” of the UN and the International community. Did we Palestinians travel from all around the world to a foreign land to murder and dispossess another people? How should we Palestinians guarantee the “security” of criminals who hide themselves behind one of the biggest and best equipped armies in the world? Is that not beyond absurdity?
“The situation in the Gaza Strip also remains of major concern. I call for immediate measures to ease the near-blanket closure of Gaza, which leads to worrying deprivations of basic supplies and undermines human dignity. And I unreservedly condemn rocket fire. The way forward is for all parties to respect the calm brokered by Egypt. I call on Israel to allow sufficient and predictable supplies to reach the population, to ensure access for humanitarian workers, and to facilitate stalled UN projects. I also call on Hamas and, indeed, all Palestinian factions to work urgently to reunify the Gaza Strip and the West Bank within the framework of the legitimate Palestinian Authority”.
I would like politely to ask Mr. Ban Ki-moon, if somebody put him and his family in a cage and locked it, would he stay peaceful in this cage until the result of some sham “peace negotiations” released him? Mr. Ban Ki-moon should do himself a favour and ask his “UN representatives” in Gaza about the situation there. They would tell him that Gaza has been converted into a concentration camp. SG Ban Ki-moons “calls” and “expressions of concern” are useless and have never been effective with Israel. There are many more effective measures well within his power, to not only ease the situation in Gaza, but to end the abject crimes of Israel. His comment about the political situation of Palestinian factions betrays a deep ignorance of the situation, or outright partisanship.
Mr. Ban Ki-moon finalized his speech saying that: “We have seen many difficulties in the past year. But it has been a crucial time in setting the stage for peace. Two thousand nine must be the year that these preparations bear fruit. Let us all work constructively, tirelessly and consistently for a just lasting, comprehensive, and urgent settlement of the question of Palestine”.
The rosy dreams of Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who has never lived a day under the criminal Israeli criminal, have no connection to reality. The crucial time for “setting the stage for peace” was every year during the past more then 60 years. Peace has consistently failed because of the lack of will on side of Israelis and their international backers. Today there is nothing more that Palestinians should either concede or give. The experience from these past decades has shown that the way to go in order to attain a durable and just peace in my homeland Palestine is for the international community to put pressure on the state of Israel to subject itself to all decisions and rulings in this cause which has been taken by broad consensus in the UN during the last decades, and to let Israel and its backers feel the alternative: shunning through disenfranchisement. The time for idle talk is over, SG Ban Ki-moon.
Kawther Salam is a Palestinian journalist. She had a career of over 20 years working for various newspapers and TV stations in Palestine. She forced to live in the Exile in Vienna since 2002.
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Hey! Ban Ki-Moon was at this secret meeting with 20 Israeli's all paid for by the Saudis – can someone explain the last sentence here to me?
The Secret Meeting Between the Saudi King And Israel
insight-info.com — A Saudi official, who wished to remain anonymous, said Saudi King Abdullah and President Shimon Pres of Israel met during the Interfaith Conference in New York. Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Saud al-Feisal, Saudi foreign minister, were also present at the meeting. Among the topics discussed was – -
The peace plan discussed in this meeting is to be proposed publicly upon the start of Obama’s presidency whose close ties to Israel is to be used as leverage to overcome the different obstacles in the Middle East conflict.
Both sides agreed that confronting Iran would not be possible without the success of this proposal.
The anonymous official revealed that during the meeting Saudis agreed to remove two articles from the proposed plan: the issue of Jerusalem and the Palestinians’ right to return.
http://www.insight-info.com/articles/item.aspx?i=1520
When you read my following article, you'd be a fool expecting too much from UNSG, dubbed Ban-chusa.
Alas! Alack-a-day! Ban-chusa is coming to town
December 22 2006
“Santa Claus is coming to town…. I am making a list…checking a list twice…going to find who’s naughty or nice…Ban-chusa is coming to town.”
Author’s note 1: Ban, Ki-moon, the newly elected Secretary General of the United Nations, has been carrying an appellation, “Ban-chusa”, during the 35-something years of his bureaucratic life in the South Korean Government…the loose translation of “chusa” refers to a low-level mandarin in a duty of an administrative clerk who generally lacks of charisma and is chockfull of uninspiring character that only concerns about one’s tenure as a dull, bland, faceless, inoffensive, unexciting, and run-of –the –mill errand boy. Most typically, the “chusa” plays a role of an official lapdog to bark in behalf of one’s master whenever boss yells “sic’em!”
Author’s note 2: You may find a live video here where Ban-chusa mutters, fumbles, and croons in a foolish and botched manner. Watching the video first and then reading my article later may help considerably in understanding the main pillar of my argument, the duck principle: if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck, period. )
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/nb_rm_fs.stm?news=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&nol_storyid=6181719
“America with other members (of the United Nations)…have been making a great contribution to restore peace and stability…to the Iraqi people. We have a high admiration for all that the United States has been doing…we hope that the Iraqi people will be able to enjoy genuine stability.”
That was the exact words, Ban-chusa told the anchorman Bill Weir during his interview in Good Morning America’s weekend edition in October 15 2006 after he shot to super stardom, the Secretary General, shamelessly telecasting his “chusa-character” to his future master, USA, and butting head with current Secretary General Kofi Annan’s statement that the US invasion of Iraq was illegal and Iraqi people are suffering from the daily onslaughts of civil war brought on by the US military occupation.
Even the stray dogs in the street of New York City where Ban-chusa begins his new UN career in 2007 know well that the US military occupation in Iraq is not “making a great contribution to restore peace and stability” in the region and the Iraqi people are not “admiring highly for all that the US has been doing,” while the incoming Secretary General profusely thanked the American people for exporting democracy and bringing stability to Iraq.
What’s up, Doc?
How in the world do we expect Ban-chusa doing his job of a strong and unbiased arbiter, trouble-shooter, and problem-solver for the delicate and intense international conflicts like the Middle East conflicts, World Food Program, Refugee Programs, Human Rights and Atomic Energy Issues?
How in the world do we hope that Ban-chusa stands up against the big powers in favor of the weak member state, when he kowtowed 90 degree genuflecting on the mat squeaking “halleluiah America”?
Isn’t the job of the Secretary General just too big for a little known “chusa” whose main function is more a milquetoast secretary than an assertive General?
Nothing in his past indicates that Ban-chusa would function as a powerful statesman in a rule-setting international body like the past Secretary Generals Dag Hammarskjold and U Thant… he rather works a backroom boy as he’s been doing all in his public life, serving his masters from the Military dictators to the political hacks.
During the brutal totalitarian regime of despotic General Park CH when most of his friends in the university converged in the street for mass demonstration to gain freedom and democracy and were arrested, tortured, jailed and exiled from the country, he hid cowardly in an attic closing his eyes, plugging his ears, gagging his mouth, and studied hard in 24/7 fashion in order to become a “chusa”.
In other words, from the beginning he has carried a quintessential characteristic of “chusa” class-consciousness that borders on total obsequiousness toward his master.
In his academic years during the sixties, the South Korea was embroidered with massive student demonstrations that a majority of university youngsters poured out into the street day in and day out, demanding the rights of free speech in the campus, petitions of habeas corpus for jailed students, and the abolition of military dictatorship.
In response, General Park CH released a coterie of hundreds of goon squads armed with iron pipes and baseball bats against the demonstrating students, beating and cracking the skulls and bodies of unarmed youngsters, arresting en masse and corralling them in temporary holding pens and administering the torture of water boarding to the student leaders.
The prisons were flooded with students, professors, labor leaders, and ordinary people who valiantly protested against his tyranny and hundreds of detainees were met with various forms of tortures and long-term jail sentences that resulted in suspicious deaths of dozens of innocent people and in the judicial killings of dissident groups.
In this social ambience, Ban-chusa was warming up his ass glued on a chair, studied hard fueled by his desire becoming a “chusa” and then passed successfully for the state exam ignoring the desperate cries from his fellow students…and then he has cut his teeth on 35-something years of his public service as a kowtowing yes man toward the iron-fisted, torture-maniac, and tin-pot military dictators (Gen. Park, Chun and Roh), an enchilada of a corrupt political hack (YS Kim), an opportunistic and venal comprador (DJ Kim), and a plastic and tubby bullfrog (Roh MH).
In other words, he, like the all-season tire, appeared to be talented with accommodating the various wishes of any type of bosses, a perfect character of a loyal, bootlicking, insipid, spineless, and weathervane milquetoast “chusa” and he had a gall cum nicety to say sorry sheepishly to his “senior-chusas” when he was awarded unceremoniously with getting promoted ahead of them.
Contrary to his admirer’s accolades that he was fastidious and laborious in implementing rules and regulations with fine details, he once goofed up the international treaty with Russia and was booted out from his ambassadorship until the foreign minister of the South Korea ratcheted him up from the street for his excellent (?) skill in English and French language…that is, his execrable English skill is obviously good enough in Korean standard among the diplomatic bureaucrats at the Foreign Ministry where scores of malapropistic “chusas” huddle picking some lunch leftovers between their teeth with a wooden toothpick in the corridors of cafeteria.
As “Ban-chusa” himself admitted frequently that he learns English by rote as most of Koreans do, he, in the live interview, often mumbles or mutters in English with no intonation like a parrot and spews out a series of monotonous vocabularies like a robot with his squinty eyeballs desperately rolling to search the memorized words or phrases he prepared in his rehearsals for press conference.
There is also a disturbing press report that he might be a member of the Unification Church because he quoted himself a “non-denominational Christian”…it is possible he might briefly be joined with the Moonies during his school years, because it was a heyday for the Moonies to recruit and brainwash the Korean youngsters, considering Ban-chusa was somewhat a loner, a wonk, and a farm boy with little money away from his hometown…a desirable target for Moonies.
It also bodes evil if it were proven that he was a Moonies, because the notorious Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) at the time employed Moonies their agents in Korea for the domestic surveillance against the dissident group, in Japan for the covert operation to disrupt anti-government movement, and in US for a major conduit to distribute the hush money toward Korean resident sleepers who lobbied for the dictatorial South Korean military government.
In the academic sense of moral and political standard, the qualities of “Ban-chusa” squarely remain in the lowest rung of promotional ladder in the bureaucratic system.
Strangely, for Bonkers Bolton, the boneheaded US envoy to the UN, “Ban-chusa” became first an accidental, second a sought-after and then a god-send candidate for the UN Secretary General in his pursuit of reforming the UN organizations palatable to the US foreign policies of imperial expansionism…Bonkers Bolton has long dismissed the legitimacy of the UN, quipping that “If the US secretary building in New York lost ten stories, it would not make a bit of difference”, and he needs someone a “chusa”-class bureaucrat who loyally follows the orders of the superpower nation unlike Mr. Kofi Annan who frequently irks the US interests in the international arena.
In other words, Bonkers Bolton wanted to make the UN an unworkable organization only as good one as it dances according to the tune of US foreign engagements and “Ban-chusa” provides the choreograph for the tune accordingly.
And “Ban-chusa” appears to be carrying all the ingredients to a fault in his bureaucratic genes executing the US intention to make the world organization a spineless, wobbling, and “impossible” institute.
Luckily for the time being, “Ban-chusa” was spared from the barking orders by the abrasive, infantile, and boorish Bonkers Bolton when the US envoy failed to get the confirmation from the US Senate and was forced to resign, as “Ban-chusa” was about to move in to take the seat in the UN building
However, Ban-chusa’s honeymoon in town won’t last much long, since Uncle Sam would breathe down on his neck closely so as not to let him stray too far away from the peg that the South Koreans were tethered in the puppet/puppeteer relationship with the US occupation forces for over half a century.
For 35 something years, “Ban-chusa” has been sitting by the same peg so long that he might have no sensation of a leash around his neck, playing antics comically about 007 James Bond and singing boyishly a Christmas carol “Santa Claus is coming to town” at the press conference as the video shows.
He alluded to the similarity between Ban and Bond, and replaced lyrics with “Ban Ki-moon is coming to town” as if he were a Santa bringing gifts to the international community.
Some say “Ban-chusa” deserves to be seen as well a good administrator of the world organization as he claimed a harmonizer and bridge-builder among member nations…
But how on earth could world people have an image of “Ban-chusa” a man of integrity when he is as blind as an owl in daylight, shouting that “We thank America for all that they have been doing in Iraq”? He doesn’t follow the daily news of bombings, killings, and massacres that Americans have brought down to the streets, towns, and homes of Iraqi civilians?
Then, obviously, as the saying goes that “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck”, there are only two possibilities: “Ban-chusa” must be either an idiot when he says totally opposite images of catastrophes in Iraq that even the stray dogs in the street can attest easily his falsification. Or he is a liar wearing the pairs of USA-made goggles that show always Alice-in-Wonderland of incomplete projects and wishful thinking for freedom and democracy in the Islamic country of Iraq.
In either way, there is no attic to hide in his new playing field at the UN building as if he hid cowardly playing a game of peek-a-boo during his school years.
History doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes,
Sadly, my bet is that “Ban-chusa” would be monikered more of a pipsqueak Secretariat who almost always kowtows to his master as he has done for three-decade-long career than an assertive General who stands up in his bully pulpit and barks back against the growling Superman, Uncle Sam, since “Ban-chusa” has neither intellectual mettle and temerity nor moral fiber and commitment to deal with the worldwide conflicts.