Israel bars agency head from leaving Gaza in unprecedented ban on UN mobility
Israel-UN, Politics, 9/2/2004

Israel has barred the head of the main United Nations body for Palestinian refugees from leaving the Gaza Strip to perform his duties in the West Bank in what the agency today called a "flagrant" step and "unprecedented and serious development" in a security clampdown, the UN reported yesterday.

"It is unheard of for the executive head of a UN agency to have his freedom of movement flagrantly curtailed by a member state of the UN in this way," the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said of the closing of the Erez crossing to the agency's Commissioner-General and UN Under-Secretary-General Peter Hansen.

"I fail to see any rational reason -- and we have not been offered any -- for this unacceptable disrespect for international law and just common decency," Hansen said of the closure, which Israel has attributed to the discovery of explosives on a Palestinian worker using the laborers' crossing point at Erez from Gaza to Israel. "The Agency's ability to carry out its essential humanitarian operations is being seriously undermined."

UNRWA stressed that Israel had refused to open the crossing to the UN, although Palestinians use an entirely different passage, UN staff have diplomatic visas issued by Israel and a UN-issued Laissez Passer, no international staff has ever been implicated in a security matter and no false Laissez Passer has ever been presented.

"As a signatory to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, and to specific agreements between UNRWA and Israel, the Government of Israel is again failing to live up to its obligations under international law and to allow freedom of movement for UN personnel," the Agency added.

UNRWA, established by the General Assembly in 1949 to carry out direct relief and works programs for Palestinians after the first Israeli-Arab war, is today the main provider of basic services, including education, health, relief and social services, to over 4.1 million registered Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.

Previous Stories:
  Israel rejects European accusations over Rafah aggression   (5/21/2004)
  EU Parliament slams Israeli practices against the Palestinians   (4/7/2004)
  UN Human Rights Committee condemn Israel   (3/25/2004)

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