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Diplomacy and Cartoons Don’t Mix

November 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

A couple of days ago I saw this news item about someone in UNESCO being angry with the Israeli representative to that organization because a newspaper in Israel had published a cartoon that mentions something about bombing a UNESCO office in Ramallah, these kind of news do not really grab attention because someone being angry on Israel for being a democratic and free state is almost a daily thing in our world, however I saw a second mention of the same thing in another site, and now it seemed more interesting to report.

The News on Ha'aretz Israeli Newspaper

So what we have here is someone with a very poor sense of humor, and on top of it a complete lack of understanding of the Israeli free press, the paper that published this cartoon is a left wing, pro Palestine daily newspaper which is famous for its critic of the Israeli prime minister, who is the star of this cartoon. This cartoon mocks Netanyahu, presenting him as eager to attack Iran nuclear facilities and telling the combat pilots to attack a UNESCO office on the way back as response to UNESCO letting the Palestinians into their club.

The Cartoon

Now this makes headlines over the world, but Huffington Post went a step further, with a headline that shouts something about UNESCO angry on a cartoon showing Israeli planes bombing UNESCO office (that’s the cartoon above, right here).

This whole thing combines into a nice mash of anti Israeli sentiments in the UN and over the press, making it look like even the mentioning of the state of Israel to UNESCO officials brings out an aggressive attitude, and mentioning it to the press imminently brings about thoughts of ultra aggressive military behavior. One thing is clear, keep this up and the Israelis will just abandon any diplomatic efforts of any kind.

Add to all of this the cartoon releated events in the last couple of years and you will find this to be the smallest of problems, when people got killed, UNESCO offices burned and personal murdered as well as the recent torching of a Paris based cartoon publisher and you should wonder how biased we have become.

Huffington Post gets lost in translation

Filed Under: Atheism blog, Press Tagged With: cartoon, ha'aretz, Israeli press, UN, UNESCO

Palestinians Heritage Agenda at UNESCO

October 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The news today tell the story of the Palestinian authority agenda at UNESCO, mainly of having Bethlehem registered as a “Palestinian heritage site”, this is done to politically gain some points against Israel and promote the participation of the PA into the UN as a member state.

The trouble with this request is the poor treatment the Palestinians give Christians and their sites, something that does not appear much on the news and that is probably considered less sexy is the fact that Christians numbers in the PA have been diminishing very quick, from making 30% of the total population 30-40 years ago to under 9% today (check out this link to learn more). Although there are no official interviews with people planning why the leave their homes it is safe to assume it is the Muslim pressure targeting Christians. And so the town of Bethlehem is today overwhelming Muslim, and is expected to be 99% Muslim in a few years.

The destruction of synagogs in the Gaza area, in the name of nationalism or religion (or both) serves as a painful reminder of how Palestinians treat other religions in their controlled areas. As an atheist I do not mind the destruction of religious sites, however all these are of huge historic importance, to all mankind, and should be preserved as a part of our understanding our past. There is no doubt that religious intolerance starts with the destruction of symbols and monuments of one side and ends with the destruction of human lives.

 

Filed Under: Catholic Church, United Nations Tagged With: Christians PA, Palestinians, UN, UNESCO