U.N.'s Anti-Israel Propaganda Prompts Congress To Act
BY MEGHAN CLYNE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
August 23, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/19020
Pressure is mounting in Washington over the United Nations' support of anti-Israel propaganda distributed in the Gaza Strip, with New York's senior senator, Charles Schumer, entering the fray yesterday, demanding answers about the funding process that led to the United Nations bankrolling the materials.
As The New York Sun reported last week, Turtle Bay financed the production of thousands of banners, bumper stickers, mugs, and T-shirts carrying the slogan Today Gaza, Tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem, and, in some cases, bearing the logo of the United Nations Development Program. The materials were distributed to Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip, and their production was timed to coincide with Israel's withdrawal from the territory, a move many Jewish leaders identified as an incitement to violence from Palestinian Arabs, particularly those affiliated with Hamas, looking to frame the withdrawal as a victory for their terrorist cause.
In an interview with Fox News last week, a special representative of the UNDP in the Gaza Strip, Timothy Rothermel, confirmed that his office had procured funding for propaganda campaign, conducted by the Palestinian Authority.
Yesterday, the U.N.'s support for the propaganda campaign also came under fire from the House of Representatives, as Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican of Florida, sent a letter to Secretary-General Annan demanding immediate action to determine how much of the UNDP's budget had been spent on the inflammatory materials.
Mr. Schumer's remarks and Ms. Ros-Lehtinen's missive come as the United Nations wrestles with a series of tough questions presented to the UNDP by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Its Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs is demanding of the UNDP accountability for the use of American tax dollars on the propaganda, an individual familiar with the inquiry said.
America provides 22% of the U.N.'s operating budget.
The Senate committee is also pressing the UNDP to answer if Mr. Rothermel - who said last week that the message contained in the materials is consistent with the relevant U.N. resolutions and Security Council resolutions about the status of Palestine - speaks for the United Nations on whether the slogan Today Gaza and Tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem reflects the world body's policy on Israel.
The Appropriations Committee is also questioning the UNDP about its connection to the Program of Assistance to the Palestinian People, which funneled the U.N. monies to the Palestinian Authority for the purpose of creating the materials. Last week, a spokesman for the UNDP, William Orme, said officials of the world body had been unaware of the propaganda campaign. The Appropriations Committee, the individual said, is also pressuring the UNDP for answers as to why it did not know the funds were going to be used for the materials.
Calls and e-mail messages to UNDP officials yesterday requesting comment went unreturned.
A spokesman for America's permanent mission to the United Nations, Richard Grinnell, told the Sun late last week that he was aware of the Appropriations Committee's inquiry, but declined to comment on the details of interactions between the Senate and the UNDP. We're in discussions with them, Mr. Grinnell said.
Less inclined to wait for answers were some members of Congress, who, even in the lull of the August recess, yesterday stepped up pressure on the world body to provide answers to the same questions asked by the Appropriations Committee and others concerned by the lack of transparency at Turtle Bay.
Mr. Schumer, in a statement e-mailed to the Sun, said: The United Nations should be vigorously monitoring the money it gives to any entity, and this is especially true in situations of such tense conflict and careful balance. These allegations raise serious questions about the funding process at the U.N., and these questions should be answered immediately.
Mr. Schumer was joined by two members of New York's congressional delegation in his demands for more answers. One is Mr. Schumer's former aide and protege, Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat who represents Brooklyn and Queens.
Speaking yesterday at an event associated with his mayoral campaign, Mr. Weiner, a longtime critic of the United Nations, said: It is hard to imagine an institution that has been more anti-Israel and less constructive for peace in the Middle East than the United Nations. Mr. Weiner said he planned to launch an inquiry into how much taxpayer money was directed to the propaganda campaign in response to the Sun's coverage of the episode.
Another city Democrat, Rep. Eliot Engel of the Bronx, said in a statement: UNDP money that was spent by the Palestinian Authority for sheer propaganda and inflammatory rhetoric is unconscionable, and is part of the reason why the PA is not taken seriously when they say they are fighting terrorism.
The PA, Mr. Engel continued, has to demonstrate they are serious about cracking down on the infrastructure of terrorist groups, not using American and international funds for their political demands.
Mr. Engel added that the UNDP bears responsibility in ensuring that funds provided to the PA are not used for propaganda and said: Therefore, I demand that the UNDP get the money back from the PA and issue a strong condemnation of the PA for misusing these funds.
Perhaps the most vocal expression of alarm came from Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, who, in a letter sent by e-mail and fax to Mr. Annan last night, said she was gravely concerned about the U.N.'s financing of the anti-Israel campaign.
Involvement in the production of biased propaganda of this nature is in no way productive to achieving the UNDP's explicitly stated goal of global poverty-reduction, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen wrote. Moreover, the U.N. involvement in this insensitive activity at such a painful moment for the Israeli people is even more troubling.
A spokesman for Mr. Annan, Edward Mortimer, said last night that Ms. Ros-Lehtinen's letter had not yet been received, and declined to comment until he had reviewed it.
These most recent allegations of American taxpayer dollars being used for questionable purposes at Turtle Bay come as Congress is already investigating the world body's proposed $1.85 billion renovation, out of concerns that the project's price tag is exorbitant.
The chairman of hearings last month into the cost of the project and the matter of U.N. waste, Senator Coburn, a Republican of Oklahoma, said yesterday that many of the same concerns applied to the world body's funding of the Palestinian propaganda campaign. When you don't have transparency, and you don't have accountability on how money is spent, all of this kind of stuff can happen behind closed doors, Dr. Coburn told the Sun yesterday.
We are going to continue to expose wastefulness, Dr. Coburn, who is chairman of the Senate subcommittee on federal financial management, government information, and international security, part of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said. In that capacity, Dr. Coburn investigates cases of waste and financial mismanagement at the federal level.
The American people are going to demand that something change, the senator said yesterday. Either the U.N.'s going to change, or the U.S. is going to change its contributions to it.