Palestinians attempt to kidnap UN Gaza Director

[JaJae]

March 16, 2007
Gunmen in Gaza Fire at Car of U.N. Official
By STEVEN ERLANGER

JERUSALEM, March 16 — In an apparent kidnapping attempt, Palestinian gunmen on Friday fired 14 bullets into the armored car of the Gaza director of the United Nations refugee agency.

The official, John Ging, was returning to Gaza from Israel through the Erez checkpoint in a white armored car that was clearly marked with United Nations insignia and a U.N. flag, and was surrounded by two other U.N. cars.

Mr. Ging said that he, a driver and a security official were blocked near Beit Hanun by a white Subaru, and three masked gunmen jumped out of the car and fired in the air.

“They tried to force open the car, and when the driver began to pull out, they opened fire,” Mr. Ging said in a telephone interview, shooting at the car and the windows.

“This is unprecedented, to shoot at a clearly marked U.N. vehicle with a U.N. flag flying in broad daylight,” Mr. Ging said. “It’s a very serious, shocking development, and we’re still considering how to deal with this.”

No one was hurt.

Mr. Ging, an Irishman, is Gaza director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, which is the largest non-governmental employer in Gaza. The agency cares for about 70 percent of Gaza’s 1.5 million people, who are registered as refugees or the descendants or refugees uprooted by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

At different periods of chaos, the United Nations has pulled Western employees out of Gaza for weeks at a time. A spokesman for UNRWA in Gaza said that the group was in discussions with the United Nations headquarters in New York about how to respond.

Mr. Ging said that Palestinian officials reacted quickly. “The need for our humanitarian operation is phenomenal at this time and we are very committed to the task,” he said. “But we need a safe and secure environment in which to conduct our operations. This gives us cause to carefully consider our position here.”

On Monday, a BBC correspondent based in Gaza, Alan Johnston, was kidnapped when he returned to Gaza from Israel through the Erez checkpoint. He went to his office in Gaza City to pick up his car, and as he began to drive home, was forced out of the car by gunmen. Mr. Johnston managed to drop a business card on the street.

Palestinian leaders have called for his release but have said little about him, and the BBC has also provided few details.

But Palestinian security officials in Gaza suggest that Mumtaz Dagmoush, a militant leader of a large clan in northern Gaza, is behind the kidnapping. Mr. Dagmoush was behind the kidnapping of two Fox News correspondents last summer; they were held for two weeks.

Mr. Dagmoush is in a battle with Hamas, demanding revenge for the shooting of two Dagmoush clan members by Hamas members of the Executive Force, a parallel police force in Gaza. Palestinian security officials said Mr. Dagmoush is demanding that more than 10 Hamas men be handed over to him or to the courts before Mr. Johnston is released.

The official said it was possible that Friday’s attempt on Mr. Ging is related. But he also said it could be tied to the announcement on Thursday of a so-called unity government combining Hamas and Fatah ministers.

“One message may be that we will not let you live happily with a unity government or without it,” the security official said.

Tayseer Mhaisen, a political analyst, said the kidnap effort was “an effort to undermine this new government.” The chaos of gunmen and clans “is the main challenge,” he said, adding: “If this government does not succeed in internal security, it won’t succeed in other matters.”

The government is expected to be ratified in a vote of the Palestinian legislature on Saturday after Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah gives a speech, followed by a policy address by Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniya of Hamas.

There are suggestions that some European countries will ignore Israel’s urging that the new government be boycotted unless it meets international demands to recognize Israel, forswear violence and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements. Some countries may decide to deal with Fatah ministers but not those from Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by the United States, European Union and Israel.

Killings have continued despite the agreement on a unity government. An intelligence officer loyal to Fatah, Hussein Salhi, 31, was murdered Friday morning by unidentified gunmen in the central Gaza town of Deir al Baleh and another officer, Mousa Erjailat, 28, was seriously wounded. They were pulled from their car and shot in the head.

Taghreed El-Khodary contributed reporting from Gaza.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/wo...nt&oref=slogin

I think it goes without saying that it ain't Israel doing this crap. Granted these people may or may not be associated the the current Palestinian government, but this kind of stuff happens all the time.

It's getting to the point where it's unsafe to even try to help these people. Attacking a UN official should be met with a huge response. The UN military should be sent out after these gunmen. But that won't happen. Instead the UN will likely ignore the incident and half the world will blame Israel for the problems faced in Palestine.

[motivez]

Originally Posted by JaJae

The UN military should be sent out after these gunmen.

UN military?

[JaJae]

Yes, the UN could send peacekeepers or a military to Palestine if it wanted to.

[motivez]

Well, it doesn't have it's own traditional military, and the forces it would send bearing the UN mark would be for different purposes than a traditional military.

I'd be all for sending an international force into Palestine. It would potentially cut down on attacks on Israel from Palestine, but also hopefully prevent Israel from taking many of the aggressive actions it does against the Palestinian people.

I think when conditions begin to improve for those living in abject poverty (which is in many cases imposed on the Palestinians by Israel), we'll see a decrease in the appeal of extremist groups in general.

Lifting people up and providing opportunities always works better than oppressing the masses.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by JaJae

The UN military should be sent out after these gunmen. But that won't happen. Instead the UN will likely ignore the incident and half the world will blame Israel for the problems faced in Palestine.

haha you'd have everyone and their brother saying it was their local political enemy who did it

Ofcourse it's Israel's problem, where did this event take place...Israel, right?

If Israel is going to continue to occupy these people, it has to stop bombing their water facilities, using their women and children as human shields (even 11 year old girls), etc
Israel investigating human shield charge - Yahoo! News

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

haha you'd have everyone and their brother saying it was their local political enemy who did it

Ofcourse it's Israel's problem, where did this event take place...Israel, right?

Israel is not responsible for this assassination attempt. This was a rogue militant group trying to kidnap a UN official for ransom. That money was likely to be used for power in the Palestine power struggle.

Israel and the Jews are historically a wonderful scapegoat to blame problems on, but this is not their problem. It is between the UN and Palestine.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by JaJae

Israel is not responsible for this assassination attempt. This was a rogue militant group trying to kidnap a UN official for ransom. That money was likely to be used for power in the Palestine power struggle.

Israel and the Jews are historically a wonderful scapegoat to blame problems on, but this is not their problem. It is between the UN and Palestine.

Ofcourse they are, its their land...it's not Palestine, Palestine is not a state, they are an occupied territory of ISRAEL, here, I'll make it simple:



There's Israel, the attack took place there...its their responsibility to protect the UN

[JaJae]

This is a battle between faction groups in the Gaza strip. How do you suppose Israel handle it? Obviously when they attack or retaliate you say they're wrong. Should they kick anyone who isn't a Jew out of Gaza and push them out into the sea as they wish to do to the Jews? The Gaza Strip is governed by the Palestinian Authority, not Israel.

Is Israel at fault for all the crap that goes on in Gaza? Where does the blame ever get placed on Palestine? This is ridiculous.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by JaJae

This is a battle between faction groups in the Gaza strip. How do you suppose Israel handle it? Obviously when they attack or retaliate you say they're wrong. Should they kick anyone who isn't a Jew out of Gaza and push them out into the sea as they wish to do to the Jews? The Gaza Strip is governed by the Palestinian Authority, not Israel.

Is Israel at fault for all the crap that goes on in Gaza? Where does the blame ever get placed on Palestine? This is ridiculous.

I don't think the answer is using 11 year old girls as human shields like the IDF does, I think there can be a middle ground, use your imagination

Ofcourse Israel is at fault for what goes on in Gaza, they send in their forces at will, attack towns and settlements, they are in complete control of their territory

Giving some Jews tons of money to relocate to Israel and telling Palestinians under boycott in a ghetto "well fix everything now or we'll attack you next month!" is ridiculous

They only "govern" themselves on paper, if the Israeli's want the Palestinians to handle it, they need to give them a modern army to overpower gangs, as of now Hamas or Fatah policemen can find themselves overpowered by gangs with no political affiliation

Your solution is to send wave after wave of 18 year old Palestinian "security forces" with ak-47s at every conflict and sacrifice their youth so that Israel might look a tad better in to the world...yeah not going to happen

In Waco when confronted with a heavily armed american christianist group, the police called the feds, they didn't charge in with their underwhelming weapons...the Palestinians don't have any larger force, they just have police, fuck even Iraqis have more Iraqi force to deal with problems

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

I don't think the answer is using 11 year old girls as human shields like the IDF does, I think there can be a middle ground, use your imagination

Palestine's issues with Israel has nothing to do with Palestine attacking UN officials.

This is between Palestine and the UN. We have issues with Iraq. Does that mean Iraq is to blame for all of our foreign affairs with other nations and entities? Surely not, the logic is flawed.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by JaJae

Palestine's issues with Israel has nothing to do with Palestine attacking UN officials.

This is between Palestine and the UN. We have issues with Iraq. Does that mean Iraq is to blame for all of our foreign affairs with other nations and entities? Surely not, the logic is flawed.

Iraq has its own government and army which can expel the US with the flip of a switch, their sovereignty is limited, but it still is a gigantic step ahead of the west bank

the west bank is more like puerto rico, if they attacked a UN rep, is it our problem or would we say "oh its no americans, its puerto ricans!"

Palestine is not a state, you can't blame them for a state problem

It's occupied Israeli lands that attacked, end of story...who is responsible...Israel

[RMNIXON]

So it is just OK to fire and abduct people in non UN marked vehicles? Make sure unprovoked violence is properly justified! What were they thinking?

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

Iraq has its own government and army which can expel the US with the flip of a switch, their sovereignty is limited, but it still is a gigantic step ahead of the west bank

the west bank is more like puerto rico, if they attacked a UN rep, is it our problem or would we say "oh its no americans, its puerto ricans!"

Palestine is not a state, you can't blame them for a state problem

It's occupied Israeli lands that attacked, end of story...who is responsible...Israel

PR is an allie of ours and a friend. The terrorists who did this are not friends of Israel and the UN has invoked restrictions on Israel as to what they can do in regards to Palestine. Surely you're not advocating they violate the very terms you so strongly favored and debated.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by JaJae

PR is an allie of ours and a friend. The terrorists who did this are not friends of Israel and the UN has invoked restrictions on Israel as to what they can do in regards to Palestine. Surely you're not advocating they violate the very terms you so strongly favored and debated.

Really, violent gangs in Puerto Rico are our allies? I never thought of it that way

Also, Israel ignores every restriction, the only thing they avoid is out-right genocide...most of the time

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

Really, violent gangs in Puerto Rico are our allies? I never thought of it that way

Also, Israel ignores every restriction, the only thing they avoid is out-right genocide...most of the time

The government of PR is our allies. Palestine is not an allie of Israel. The UN has set restrictions. In one thread you say Israel needs to be prevented from meddling in Palestine's affairs. Then in another you say they should butt in. It can't be both ways.

There is no middle or "fair" ground between these countries. Palestine won't allow it to be so.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by JaJae

The government of PR is our allies. Palestine is not an allie of Israel. The UN has set restrictions. In one thread you say Israel needs to be prevented from meddling in Palestine's affairs. Then in another you say they should butt in. It can't be both ways.

There is no middle or "fair" ground between these countries. Palestine won't allow it to be so.

Abbas, the president of Palestine, has been trying to work with Israel non-stop

I'm very clear on my stance, Israel should grant freedom to the Palestinian people and stop the brutal occupation...however as long as they are occupying, and the maps read "ISRAEL" then it's an Israeli problem when something happens anywhere...Tel Aviv or Hebron or anywhere

Israel has been ruling these people as subjects for 40 years, and continues to put its military inside any location whenever it wants for brutal attacks to set military policy (using deplorable tactics such as little girls for human shields) and they have no responsibility for what goes on...in their own lands I just described?

That is one weird view