February 10, 2006

Statement of the Secretary-General at the meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian people

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The last time the Secretary-General showed up at a meeting of the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) was November 29, 2005. On that occasion the meeting sported a map without the state of Israel in the background. This time the Secretary-General had an aide scope out the room before he appeared. I guess he couldn't rely either on his own staff in the Division for Palestinian Rights, or the Senegalese Ambassador who chairs the Committee, to keep the map out of the limelight. But the map aside, what was the Secretary-General doing at the next CEIRPP meeting anyway? He came to tell this Committee, which didn't have a problem with a map without Israel, that the Palestinian vote for Hamas "underlin[ed] their commitment to build their democracy." He spoke about the Palestinian election without mentioning who was elected, a kind of disembodied electoral event. The party elected has a charter which includes "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him"? The Secretary-General's response? "I respect the decision of the Palestinian people." Annan then proceeded to condemn Israel for the "plight of the Palestinian people," while neglecting to mention terrorism or the plight of the Israeli people facing a government dedicated to their annihilation. In short, the embarrassing map may have been removed. The UN agenda remains the same.