By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, October 21 -- While at the UN the Security Council for example confines most of its disagreements to behind closed door consultations, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People has a working group which Monday let it all hang out.
They invited as a speaker a former Israeli paratrooper Avner Gvaryahu, now of the group "Breaking the Silence" to discuss the book "Our Harsh Logic: Israeli soldiers’ testimonies from the Occupied Territories, 2000-2010."
Gvaryahu described senseless searches of Palestinian homes, in one case simply to commandeer the family's television set to watch sports. He spoke of looting and confiscating kitchen knives as weapons.
Then as the first and third questions in the Q&A session, Gvaryahu was accused of telling "ugly lies" and of slandering the Israeli defense forces.
Gvaryahu shot back that these critics don't live in Israel and are clinging to the past. The deputy representative of the State of Palestine urged Gvaryahu to do more speaking engagements, particularly in the United States. Namibia congratulated him too.
Gvaryahu made a point of saying that his group, of 1000 soldiers, declined to speak with the Goldstone Commission, but that testimonies it collected were used. He said the group would prefer an Israeli inquiry -- not an army inquiry, but not necessarily an independent inquiry. This did not seem to convince the first and third questioners.
The third questioner said, broadcast on the UN's EZTV, that "people in Gaza are not innocent."
The chair of the session, from Malta, handled it with aplomb. He asked speakers to identify themselves, but didn't push when the last questioners declined to. He said this reflected transparency, and the diversity of views.
Malta is a small state, but this is one of its gigs in the UN. Meanwhile in front of the Security Council earlier on Monday, when Israel's jovial Permanent Representative Prosor came to take cell phone photos with three guests, only half-hearted attempts to say that the UNTV "camera is live, don't stand there" were made.
The UN is, it is often pointed out, owned by its member states. But smaller or less high profile states are often made not to take photos at the stakeout. If that's being waived, so much the better - but let it be for all, and not like when the UN let France "reserve" many seats in the "UN" Press Briefing Room during the controlled Q&A with President Francois Hollande.
Similarly, a double standard has developed as to which media are banned from speaking with diplomats, even when invited to, in the so-called Turkish Lounge, challenged by theFree UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info. This is the microcosm that reflects wider problems. Watch this site.
