How to Misuse the UN
SAMUELS, GERTRUDE
PROMOTING THE PALESTINIANS How to Misuse U1NI bygertrudesamuels Unitfu Nations Last Dhckmbfr 2, jusl 12 days after Anwar Sadat's mission of peace to Jerusalem, the General Assembly approved the...
...I he question, though, is whether this can be done by an office that is harnessed to one side of the Middle East conflict, and whose every activity is subject to the approval of the pro-Palestinian Fall committee...
...Of Ihe many striking features of the Fall Comniillee and Ihe satellite Special Unit, Ihe most glaring are I heir anti-Israel composition and philosophy...
...Asked whether the film would deal with Israeli Arabs, he replied, "We haven't discussed this...
...There are to be bulletins, "perhaps three a year," and a full-length film...
...1'hc Middle Last problem can only be solved through an overall settlement that deals simultaneously with all the rights of all the parties involved...
...It is the brainchild of Fall's Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, a standing General Assembly panel thai was itself established in 1975 and mostly seems to search for ways to further Ihe Palestinian cause...
...A high-ranking spokesman for the German Mission to the UN told me: "The main reason we voted No was that it might be an unwelcome precedent—to create a unit in the Secretariat that is dependent on the guidance of the [Fall] committee...
...The correct term to me would be 'information unit.' " Pressed for clarification, he went on...
...We are experiencing a further serious erosion in the respect which this body has for itself...
...representative to the current session of the UN, told the Assembly: "As 1 have listened to the debate 1 wonder whether some representatives here are living in the real world...
...Many of I hose who opposed the Gi ririidi-: Samiii-is, who covers Ihe UN for Ihe Nl., hus just completed u hook on the I.ehane.se civil war...
...What will the film be like...
...It's to be given as much publicity as possible, world-wide...
...But Count Jan M. V. A. de Mar-chant et d'Andembourg of the Netherlands, whose diplomatic service has included a tour in Syria during the 1973 October War, perhaps best summed up the concern over the latest misuse of the UN: "What happens when you institute a Special Unit such as this is that you get one side of the picture, the Arab side...
...Critics point out, for example, that the committee recently senl a cable to Ya-sir Aralal, assuring him "once more of our unity...
...The Italian Mission's first counselor, M. Giancarlo Danovi, said, "We don't see the use of this Unit—to isolate what is one element of the Middle East problem...
...But they will not be permitted to serve on it...
...As the Talmud says: 'When one transgresses a commandment and repeats the offense, he feels no further restraint.' Congressman Lester L. Wolff (D-N.Y...
...After following a winding corridor, I came upon a singularly quiet area where several empty officies were being readied for the new tenants...
...ONi- ri-vini' afternoon, 1 visited the quarters of the Special Unit on Palestinian Rights, on the 32nd Hoot of the Secretariat...
...And I'm afraid that the creation of the Palestine Unit is another example of majority voting divorcing itself from the real world...
...Now, under ils direction and using ihe world-wide public relations apparatus of ihe UN, the new propaganda unit has been officially empowered lo prepare studies and publications pertaining to Palestinian rights...
...the U.S...
...He explained that the Unit would produce "some new studies on the Palestinian question," examining the World Organization's actions on the issue during the last 30 years...
...Nor are they appeased by the fact that his deputy for supervising the new unit will be an American?Under Secretary-General William B. Buffum, a 56-year-old career foreign service officer...
...It would depend on Israel...
...Several experienced diplomatic hands whom I talked to think not...
...Opponents suggest that mandating Wald-heim to set up and staff what is basically an instrument of ideological warfare against one member state is not the best way of "respecting" his neutrality...
...A quiet-spoken young man, he has spent 22 years in his country's foreign service, and three with the Secretariat...
...The Unit] will cost this body more than $800.000—at a time when the UN is experiencing a financial •emergency of a $100-million deficit...
...We'll highlight Palestinian rights, of course—that's the job—but we'll stay with the facts...
...That hasn't been decided," Yogasundram said...
...We recognize Palestinian rights, but we feel that the rights of Israel should also be recognized...
...No European Community country is a member of the committee, because we thought the mandate was too one-sided...
...If it's going to be a self-advertising agency for a biased point of view, it's certainly not going to be very useful...
...When it begins blithely to pass resolutions without considering either the ethical or financial implications contained in them, then it is well on the road both to moral and fiscal bankruptcy...
...lo generate publicity "in order lo promote Ihe attainment of those rights...
...Ambassador Eamonn Kennedy of Ireland put it bluntly: "The timing of the creation of the Palestine Unit seemed to us deplorable, coming just a couple of weeks after the historic visit of President Sadat to Jerusalem...
...Ironically, the 20 nations that voted against the formation of the Special Unit on Palestinian Rights—including I he U.S., Israel and Ihe nine members ol the Luropcan Economic Community—will pay for most of its operation, since their contributions account for 60 per cent of the United Nations' general budgcl and that will be I he source ol financing...
...thai 19 of ils 23 members have no diplomatic relations wilh Israel...
...PROMOTING THE PALESTINIANS How to Misuse U1NI bygertrudesamuels Unitfu Nations Last Dhckmbfr 2, jusl 12 days after Anwar Sadat's mission of peace to Jerusalem, the General Assembly approved the creation of an "information unit" in the Secretariat whose sole purpose appears to be advertising and promoting the objectives ol the Palestine Liberation Organization...
...One office, however, did boast an occupant—the secretary, or administrator, of the Special Unit, Yogaraj Yogasun-dram of Sri Lanka...
...What it has to do is to bring out all the facts as established by the LIN...
...and lo organize, commencing in 1978, "an International Day of Solidarity wild Ihe Palestinian People...
...This is not a propaganda unit," he said...
...This would politicize the Secretariat, which should act as a neutral body...
...December 2 Assembly resolution (the vote was 95 for, 20 against, with 27 abstentions) are troubled by the use —and misuse—of the Secretary-General and his Secretariat, Under Article 100 of the UN Charter, member nations are required to respect the international, neutral character of the Secretariat's civil service staff, "and not to seek to influence them in the discharge of their responsibilities...
...The special-interest agency emerged from an estimated 188 resolutions and recommendations on I he Palestinian question that have come oul of plenary and committee sessions during the UN's 33-year existence...
...We will observe this line...
...Ambassador Chaim Herzog of Israel put his objections this way: "The blatant disregard of Israel's own sovereign rights bears no relation to the new era that has dawned in the Middle East...
...As an international civil servant, how did Yogasundram feel about his assignment to a propaganda unit...
...It's a very thin line between information and propaganda...
...Being a UN production, it will be as balanced as it could be...
...November 29, the dale when Pales-line was partitioned in 1947, was selected as Solidarity Day...
...and thai ihe task force appointed lo oversee Ihe work of the in-fornialion agency consists of Afghanistan, Cuba, Guinea, Guyana, India, Malta, Senegal, Tunisia, and Ihe Pl.O...
...We have to face the fact that voting majorities, often composed of small countries, do not necessarily represent the views of the great majority of mankind...
...There's a lot of material available, but we'll need also to film on location...
...In mid-February Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim was instructed by Medounc Fall, Senegal's UN representative and chairman of the Assembly committee on Ihe subject, not to staff the new unit with nationals from countries that cither had opposed ils formation or are directly involved in the Middle Fast conflict (although, he went on magnanimously, exceptions could be made...
Vol. 61 • March 1978 • No. 6
