UN rejects JNF's application for consultative status

On 18 May 2007, the United Nations’ Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) rejected the application of the Jewish National Fund (JNF)-USA for consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) by a vote of 8 to 7 with three abstentions.

Consultative status enables NGOs to circulate statements and participate in relevant international conferences convened by the UN and in the meetings of their preparatory bodies. The Committee on NGOs, which is comprised of 19 Member States, decides upon whether or not to afford NGO-applicants consultative status. Over 2,700 NGOs from all over the world have been afforded consultative status.

The eight countries voting against the granting of status to the JNF-USA were Burundi, China, Cuba, Egypt, Guinea, Russian Federation, Qatar, and Sudan; the seven countries voting in favour were Colombia, Israel, Peru, Romania, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States; and the three countries abstaining were Angola, India, and Pakistan.

The JNF-USA lobbied hard to gain ECOSOC status and provided letters of support for its application from powerful members of the US Congress, such as Senator Hillary Clinton. However, country representatives and the Palestine Observer Mission to the UN expressed concern about the affiliation between the JNF-USA and the JNF-KKL (Keren Kayameth LeIsrael), which carries out land development and settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). While the JNF-USA told the Committee that it was independent and involved in water, environmental and development projects in the Middle East, country representatives stated that they were unable to distinguish between the activities of the JNF-USA and JNF-KKL. Another main reason cited for why the application should be rejected was that the JNF’s work violated the principles of the UN Charter, which emphasizes respect for human rights and equality.

Adalah and its partner organizations, Habitat International Coalition and Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, have been closely monitoring these developments before the Committee on NGOs. The human rights organizations have also been advocating strenuously before UN human rights bodies to urge Israel to cease discriminatory land allocation practices using institutions such as the JNF, which controls 13% of the land in Israel exclusively for the benefit of the Jewish population. In the JNF’s own words:

 

“The JNF is not the trustee of the general public in Israel. Its loyalty is given to the Jewish people in the Diaspora and in the state of Israel... The JNF, in relation to being an owner of land, is not a public body that works for the benefit of all citizens of the state. The loyalty of the JNF is given to the Jewish people and only to them is the JNF obligated. The JNF, as the owner of the JNF land, does not have a duty to practice equality towards all citizens of the state” (Response of the JNF, dated December 2004, to a petition filed by Adalah to the Supreme Court of Israel – HC 9205/04).

 The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), for example, in its concluding observations issued in March 2007, urged Israel to ensure that the JNF, the World Zionist Organization, and the Jewish Agency are “bound by the principle of non-discrimination in the exercise of their functions.”

Comments

[joe90]

Thanks for that news - I never even knew these events were taking place.

I find it unbelieveable that an organisation such as JNF, which is rotten to the core, would have the gall to apply for such a status at the UN - nothing surprises me about these violent racist lunatics, but they always still manage to shock and appall me. At least I know my conscience still works, despite years of exposure to the worst humanity has to offer. Or maybe my conscience still works ok because I am exposed to the best humanity has to offer - the great People of Palestine!

More brilliant news I'm afraid -
http://www.pacbi.org/announcements_more.php?id=504_0_5_0_M>PACBI Press Release - Boycotting Israeli Apartheid Back on the Agenda
PACBI
30 May 2007

Here are some details from an events notice http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JustPeaceUK/message/20884>Fwd: Israel: A Rogue State / Imprisoning a Nation posted to JPUK Yahoo messegeboard of forthcoming events -

Froms SPSC, films and a talk -
http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=90&Itemid=134>Peter Hounam / Dead in the Water

And the BIG demo for JUNE the 9th -
http://www.enoughoccupation.org/?lid=13692>ENOUGH!
National Demonstration for Palestine 9th June
National Demonstration: March and Rally in Trafalgar Square - 40 Years of
Occupation is Enough! 09 June 2007

There is a bus organised from Glasgow - e-mail secretary@... [?]
for bookings.
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/

3. PROTEST - Edinburgh 9 June

For those who can't make it to London we call on you to join us at The Mound,
Princes Street at 12noon so people in Edinburgh can find out why international
demonstrations are taking place that weekend.

[joe90]

Fri 8th June 2007 TV BBC 4 7.50 - 9PM
'Dead in the Water' is scheduled for broadcast.

It isn't listed on the BBC's website under current http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/whatson/search/genre.cgi?start=100&genre=fact_documentaries&tstart=now>What's On documentaries

It is listed via a search under an out of date entry -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/dead_in_the_water.shtml>DEAD IN THE WATER
Saturday 21 August 2004 7pm-8.10pm; rpt 1.50am-3am

Attacks on the Yanks aren't the BBC's thing at the moment!

ps
There is a plethora of BBC programmes on all things 'Middle East' in the coming week, on all BBC channels !