United Nations. Photo: AJN file

NAOMI LEVIN

WHILE abstaining from a vote is often not perceived as a noteworthy action, last week, two days after launching an investigation into the alleged fraudulent use of Australian passports by the Mossad, Australia was noted as abstaining from a crucial vote regarding Israel in the United Nations (UN).

The vote in the UN’s General Assembly reiterated a call for both the government of Israel and the Palestinians to conduct independent and credible investigations into “the serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law reported by the [Goldstone Commission’s] Fact-Finding Mission”.

Australia had previously voted against the resolution, but changed its vote this time around – a move that was heavily criticised by Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) president Philip Chester.

When it comes to General Assembly votes, the practice is for Australia to decide its position as close as possible to the actual vote.

However, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith emphasised that the abstention was not “payback” for allegations that Israel forged Australian passports.
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Inclusion and exclusion at the United Nations

AS a fan of multilateralism, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wants Australia to win a seat on the United Nations (UN) Security Council. But achieving that aspiration has for some time been regarded as a potential liability in terms of Canberra’s policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Australia has not held a Security Council seat in more than 20 years, and pundits say that supporting Israel while trying to scale the greasy pole to the UN’s executive chamber are contradictory aims – because some UN powerbrokers want Australia to be more “even-handed” or, better still, pro-Palestinian.
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The Dead Sea Scrolls. Photo: AJN file

JERUSALEM — The Jordanian government has asked the United Nations to help it take the Dead Sea Scrolls from Israel.

Jordan last week filed a complaint with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) claiming that Israel stole the 900 ancient religious text fragments from an eastern Jerusalem museum during the Six-Day War in 1967.

The scrolls are currently on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

A Jordanian antiquities official said in a statement that Jordan has documents to prove it owns the scrolls.

Earlier this month Canada rejected a request by Jordan to confiscate the documents under international law.

JTA

CARTOONIST Kron comments on the United Nations climate summit being held in Copenhagen.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith. Photo: AJN file

NAOMI LEVIN

THE federal Government has denied a shift in Middle East policy, despite changing Australia’s vote in the United Nations on a motion on Palestinian self-determination.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said Australia’s UN voting pattern is strongly based on the country’s “long-standing support for the Middle East peace process”, including a two-state solution.

Representatives of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC)  wrote to the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister asking for an explanation about the vote change.

The vote in question was in a committee of the General Assembly earlier this month. The motion reaffirms the right of Palestinian people to self-determination and urges all states to help the Palestinian people realise this.
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SIDRA KRANZ MOSHINSKY

IN case it’s over before you even knew it had begun, 2009 is Year of the Blood Donor, so deemed by the federal Government. It appears to have passed unnoticed by many.

The current year actually carries quite a load. On an international level, the United Nations, apparently unable to choose, declared 2009 the International Year of Reconciliation, the International Year of Natural Fibres and the International Year of Astronomy.
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CARTOONIST Kron comments on the United Nations report by Richard Goldstone into the Gaza war of December 2008.

ISI LEIBLER

THE disgusting behaviour by the vast majority of members of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) in relation to the Goldstone Report was no surprise.

An international body with an automatic majority of Arab and rogue states was not expected to display even a modicum of balance in relation to Israel.
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CARTOONIST Kron comments on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas leading the charge against Israel at the United Nations.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev. Photo: AJN file

AHRON SHAPIRO

THE United Nations’ Goldstone Commission Report on the Gaza war used information that was gathered in a manner of a “Stalinist show trial”, according to Mark Regev, the Australian-born spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Speaking to The AJN during a visit to Melbourne last week, Regev said the Goldstone Report was a blatantly biased document that was “born in sin”.

Regev outlined the challenges facing the Netanyahu government in both foreign and domestic affairs.

On the issue of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Regev declined to comment whether Netanyahu had a specific red line in Iran’s nuclear program that would require Israel to take action, instead emphasising that Israel hoped the current diplomatic process would bear fruit.

“If we see a diplomatic process that works, no-one will be more thankful than Israel and, of course, our Arab neighbours,” he said.
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