Lev Leviev, a real estate and diamond mogul who is one of the richest men in Israel, has supported UNICEF with direct contributions and indirectly by sponsoring at least one UNICEF fund-raiser.The UN has this issue wrong in so many respects, but let me clear things up.
He is chairman of Africa Israel Investments, a conglomerate whose units include Danya Cebus, which the Arab rights advocacy group Adalah-NY charges has carried out settlement construction, considered illegal by the United Nations.
UNICEF decided to review its relationship with Leviev after a campaign by Adalah-NY and found "at least a reasonable grounds for suspecting" that Leviev companies were building settlements in occupied territory, a UNICEF official said.
"I can confirm that UNICEF has advised Adalah in New York that it will not be entering into any partnerships or accepting financial contributions from Lev Leviev or his corporate people," Chris de Bono, a senior adviser to the executive director of UNICEF, told Reuters.
Housing - whether you call it settlements or otherwise - are not, and never were the stumbling block for any deal between Israel and its enemies. It's a cover for the real issues, which are the Palestinians and those enemies do not wish for any deal with Israel.
Housing can always be transferred between parties. It's done all the time, and it was indeed done in the Egypt-Israel peace treaty. Israel withdrew from its Sinai settlements and handed them over to the Egyptians. Israel withdrew from its Gaza settlements in 2005 and the Palestinians promptly ransacked them and turned them into terror training camps.
Transferring those housing projects could be done at some time in the future should the circumstances warrant with a peace deal between Israel and its neighbors for those housing projects built or contemplated in the West Bank. But to say that they are grounds for which to treat Leviev as toxic are hilarious considering the wide range of thugs, dictators, and totalitarian regimes that get to dictate UN policy.
To shun money from a wealthy Israeli billionaire who is giving significant humanitarian aid to UNICEF shows just how wretched the UN is. They look a gift horse in the mouth - supporting childrens' aid programs around the world and decline that aid because he also provides housing in a disputed part of the world at the say so of those Palestinian sympathizers who have done nothing for UNICEF or any other UN program except to use them as cover for their terror activities and to suck at the teat of UN largesse.
No comments:
Post a Comment