Dave Kopel on UNICEF on National Review Online: "Americans mostly know UNICEF through the “trick or treat for UNICEF” campaigns. The “trick” is on the donors who think that UNICEF is all about helping poor children. UNICEF has been a major financier of Palestinian “summer camps” which encourage children to become suicide bombers. One such camp is named for Wafa Idris, a female suicide bomber."
Friday, October 26, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
another attempt by the extreme-right to discredit the united nations... why does this not shock me. of course the UN seems ineffective if all you want it to do is aid the spread of US influence.
i certainly don't mean to cause any offense, but i have a hard time taking seriously articles contributed by groups that host speeches by laura ingraham
> another attempt by the
> extreme-right to discredit
> the united nations
No one needs to attempt to discredit the U.N. It does a fantastic job of discredting itself on a regular basis. Any organization that puts Syria on its Human Rights Commission has bottomed out with regard to credibility.
> i have a hard time
> taking seriously articles
> contributed by groups that
> host speeches by laura
> ingraham
But I bet groups that host speeches by Michael Moore or Randi Rhodes are a-ok, right?
I withheld from comment until I could see what type of response UNICEF had to these allegations. I received this email today (11/1). DB I hope you don't mind my copying it in its entirety -- I know it's rather long. The second to last paragraph I found particularly important. Thanks - P.
Dear Friend,
I have come across this article, however we have not yet prepared a point by point rebuttal to its allegations. The article compiles a list of outstanding cases and incidents that have affected UNICEF. Generally these incidents were caused by a 3rd party working with UNICEF at the time. To maintain our apolitical stance, as a policy UNICEF will not seek to politicize the suffering of children. Regarding UNICEF and supporting Palestinian terrorists I have attached a prepared article that addresses UNICEF and all of its activities in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
UNICEF works for the survival, protection and development of children worldwide. UNICEF’s work is guided by the principal that all children have the right to a childhood free from violence, exploitation, and discrimination. Therefore, UNICEF has been very concerned about the impact of fighting on children in the OPT, and has repeatedly called on all parties to ensure the protection of children. Youth summer camps provide a safe haven for children where they can momentarily escape the conflict and develop basic life-skills – team work, self-esteem, tolerance, conflict resolution, and communication – by giving them the chance to learn, have fun, and be children.
UNICEF and the Palestinian Authority have consistently stated that summer camps cannot be used to promote, glorify, or commemorate the violence. Despite these policies, local communities gave four of the 311 UNICEF-sponsored summer camps nicknames of Palestinians who have died in the conflict. Due to the short duration of summer camps (2 weeks), UNICEF did not learn about the inappropriate names until the camps were over. However, any allegations regarding the use of these summer camps to promote violence or teach extremism have been thoroughly investigated by UNICEF and determined to be without merit.
It is unfortunate that a program that has helped almost 100,000 children has been tainted by these isolated incidents. In response to these events, UNICEF has enhanced its monitoring activities to include site visits to all 100 summer camps in 2004, increased communication with the local managing committees and Palestinian Authority, boosted the intensity of our training system for monitors, and created monitoring criteria to assess the major activities of the camps. Additionally, the six zonal UNICEF offices in Gaza and the West Bank help extend monitoring services even further.
UNICEF is confident that since the summer camps began in 2001, all activities have been found to be peaceful and focused on remedial education, play, and non-violent participation. Our support for the camps is conditional upon their remaining safe environments for children free from violence or hatred.
None of UNICEF’s work in the OPT, including support for youth summer camps, immunization efforts and clean water and sanitation projects, could have been possible without the Israeli government’s sanction. UNICEF has enjoyed a strong and uninterrupted relationship with Israel since it became one of the first recipients of UNICEF aid in 1948 and even after Israel attained the economic capacity to care for its children in 1966. Each year, the Israeli government makes a voluntary contribution to UNICEF and is a signatory to all UN conventions protecting the rights of children.
I hope this information is useful to you, and I commend you on your gracious support of UNICEF and its activates. Thank you for your concern about the world's children.
Sincerely,
Max Gebhardt
Program Services
U.S. Fund for UNICEF
MGebhardt@unicefusa.org
really appreciate the post, peg
I don't want to get into a shoving match over this, so I will just say that my mother told me about these issues back when I wanted to carry a UNICEF box at Halloween when I was in grade school.
That would make for 30 or more years of unfortunate, unintended or isolated incidents. I'm not sure what to call that. "Careless" doesn't seem to cover it. I'll settle on "not worthy of my support."
I guess it might be a case of "doing something is always better than doing nothing" and that we're talking about a fraction of the funds, but its an enabling behavior - and the acts enabled are things I abhor.
Post a Comment