Israel Matzav

Trick or treat: It's UNICEF

I only wish I had seen this post yesterday at this time rather than today, but alas, it came to me during the night. Judith Weiss at Kesher Talk did a thorough job of reminding all the parents in the US why you should not send your child out to "Trick or Treat for UNICEF" on Halloween. I realize that Halloween is over in most of the US already, so please file this away for next year:

If you read this before sending your children out to collect dimes and quarters for the fund, you might want to review the checkered history of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, which exhibits the same blinkered view of global politics as its parent body the United Nations.

I was reminded of UNICEF’s programs when I got an email from a friend:

Many of you may remember my son refusing the Trick or Treat for UNICEF blue and white box last year during Halloween time. He caught some flak from his teacher for refusing it, but after some explanation, she understood his (and our) point of view.

Please recall that a teacher (Ms. L) in his school had spearheaded the UNICEF project. I reached out to her, sending her articles with a note explaining that UNICEF funds Palestinian Summer Camps that promote hatred of the West, Jews and Christians. These same camps hold homicide bombers in very high esteem. One of these camps is named for Wafa Idris, the 1st female homicide bomber. I never received an answer from this teacher; and an appeal to the school’s principal got me nowhere.

Determined to stop UNICEF before Halloween 2006, I decided to take a different tact. My friend and fellow Little League coach - P was elected President of the XXX School Board. P trades commodities on the NY Merc, and was in the WTC on 9/11. This year I appealed directly to P to put an end to UNICEF fundraising in XXX Public Schools.

Moments ago, I received a phone call from P. The UNICEF program is d-e-a-d, dead... A memo is going out from the District Superintendant to all principals and teachers putting an end to this program. There’s to be no fundraising for UNICEF until they clean up their act.

I vaguely recalled the funding of terrorist-inspired summer camps for Palestinian children.

All UNICEF-supported summer camps are run under the umbrella of the National Committee on Summer Camps, a body headed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and which includes the Palestinian Authority, UNICEF, UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Work Agency) [the only UN relief agency specifically for one group of refugees, which encourages terrorism] and NGO representatives. The camps are guided by a National Declaration on Summer Camps, which promotes non-violence, tolerance and non-exploitation. [my emphasis-JSW] The principles in the Declaration are drawn from the Convention of the Rights of the Child — the world’s most widely adopted human rights treaty.

. . . . The summer camps supported by UNICEF will have intensive and frequent monitoring. All UNICEF staff from Jerusalem and six zonal offices will assist with monitoring activities — providing support to summer camp organizers as well as ensuring availability of such basics as proper sanitation, water and food.

Are they monitoring only for facilities, or are they responding to this criticism from 2003 in addition to the revelation about the Wafa Idris summer camp?

PYALARA, the Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation, is a student-run Palestinian NGO founded in 2000. It was founded as a non-political organization to provide support to young Palestinians.

. . . . Despite its non-political mission statement and its commitment to UNICEF not to engage in political activities, NGO Monitor is concerned by the organization’s covert ideological agenda. Of particular concern is the publication of an article on Abu Ali Mustafa, the leader of the PFLP terrorist organization and killed by Israeli forces in 2001. [The article has since been taken down.]

. . . . PYALARA has used funds that are donated explicitly for non-political and non-violent projects in order to promote blatantly political objectives, including the indirect support for terror attacks on civilians. The article calls Abu Ali Mustafa “a political leader...whose history prides his nationalistic activism.” Further on it states, “this is a human being who has a family that awaits his arrival every day.”

There is no mention of the fact that Abu Ali’s Mustafa’s organization, the PFLP, has been responsible for 3 car bombs in Jerusalem, the death of an Israeli government Minister and many other terrorist attacks since September 2000. This comes from an organization that with Red Army assistance carried out a massacre of 24 people at Tel Aviv’s International airport in 1972. Four years later, the PFLP hjiacked a Paris-Athens Air France flight and diverted it to Entebbe in Uganda demanding the release of jailed militants. Founded by George Habash in 1968, the Marxist-Leninist PFLP has changed alliances and shifted positions several times since its establishment, but it has always been consistent in its opposition to peace negotiations with Israel.

The article has more details about Mustafa’s other terrorist activities, and and the PYALARA’s polemics.In 2004, UNICEF officials were still giving tacit approval to terrorists by overlooking their adulation by Palestinian society.

The following appeared this week in the PA daily:

“The Shahid [Martyr] Salakh Khalaf [Abu Iyad] Stadium was inaugurated [Friday]… speeches were made by UNICEF representative in Palestine, Jonathan Hutchen… [and] in the name of USAID, who financed the project… Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport, Dr. Jamal Muhaysin, thanked the sponsoring and supporting agencies and praised the management of the Shahid (Martyr) Salakh Khalaf Center… which is considered one of the most important and of the biggest sport centers … Honor shields were presented by the Ministry of Youth and Sport to Save the Children [and to] USAID…” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May, 30, 2004]

In 2005, the Simon Weisenthal Center accused UNICEF of making propaganda from an incident involving three Palestinian teens killed by the IDF while smuggling arms from Egypt.

There's much more to this. Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:12 AM