United Nonsense

I used to want to work for the United Nations and if pushed to it I would still have to say that I do believe in what the organisation tries to do – despite all its faults. But I just don’t think me sitting in that UN decaled car driving around Jerusalem or the West Bank is something I want to do anymore. I won’t get into the details of the why…or maybe I will, but I think their presence in WB is somewhat useless. The organisation has such high ideals but little muscle to make any of them a reality. When a country such as Sudan commits certain atrocities they have sanctions slapped down on them, at the least. Now, this wasn’t an easy task to do, granted, but Israel has been committing low-level abuses for decades and not a hint of sanctions.

During Ramadan in this year, I was present at the Gilo terminal in Bethlehem and both UNWRA and UNOCHA were there. But what surprised me was that these people stood on the Bethlehem side and stood…and stood. Perhaps there was a moment when they could help explain the rules to some of the people who were turned away from the checkpoint but could they assist in the matter – no. I was chatting to one of the UNWRA women there and she consistently complained that the people did not appreciate her being there. The Palestinian people have watched the wall been built and completed and watched the UN at the same time document it without making a change. I don’t blame them for having a complaint or two. This is all the more frightening when none of the non-local UN staff there had even seen the inside of the terminal and were unsure of how it worked.

UNOCHA is more of an enigma. Why is a humanitarian coordination office here in WB, one of the biggest deployments in the world, when this is not a humanitarian crisis? A humanitarian dignity crisis to be sure, but not an emergency crisis like say, Haiti. Why all the millions pumped into this observation? I am not the only one asking this question.

And furthermore, their staff are not allowed to be in WB after dark, nor are they allowed to be in certain parts of East Jerusalem after 23:00, for reasons of security. It is hardly imaginable that abuses of human rights are going to occur within suitable hours for the UN to be able to witness and document. I realize that these concerns are really for insurance purposes. But are you here to see or are you not?

If your role here is to merely document – make that clear. Do not make out like you are here to make things better and make the Israeli government do things differently. It is clear you have no such power.

Ah, this post could get out of hand. I will stop there. I don’t want to try and get into a analysis of the effectiveness of the UN in Israel. What I do find interesting however is that there are members of the Knesset and firm Israel supporters who moan about the effectiveness of the UN in Israel. Does that make sense to anyone? Of course the sense of that comments depends on which party of the Knesset you are a member of, but non-Knesset, pro-Israel supporters – what exactly do you want the UN to do? Punish you? Stop the workers getting upset at the terminals? Bizarre.

To cut this short, I lost a lot of respect for the UN during my time in the West Bank. I didn’t loose respect for international law but I do have my concerns for whether it matters if it can’t be enforced. Perhaps the UN works like this in all areas of the world in which it is needed. Only further explorations will tell that one.

Grrrrr……