Israël krijgt zetel in 2 VN organisaties: HABITAT en UNEP

Met het lidmaatschap van Israël in 2000 van het "Westerse en Andere Staten" blok (WEOG) in de VN was aan de decennialange discriminatie van Israël binnen de Verenigde Naties nog geen einde gekomen, omdat het nog steeds niet kon deelnemen aan beraadslagingen van belangrijke VN organisaties. Hiervoor zijn aparte stemmingen binnen het WEOG nodig, die bij consensus moeten worden genomen.

 

Onlangs is -blijkens onderstaand bericht- weer een kleine horde genomen op weg naar een gelijkwaardige positie van Israël in de VN: Israël is gekozen om voor WEOG deel te nemen aan de reguliere besprekingen van twee VN organisaties: HABITAT (huisvesting) en UNEP (milieu).

 

Eerder in december had Israël ook al een diplomatiek succesje in de VN met een aangenomen resolutie over het delen van landbouwtechnologieën met derde wereld landen.

 

Er is echter nog een lange weg te gaan voordat Israël in de VN eerlijk wordt behandeld, gezien onder meer de talloze eenzijdige veroordelingen door de Mensenrechtenraad en de Algemene Vergadering, en het arsenaal aan VN-instanties voor de Palestijnen en de vele anti-Israël conferenties zoals Durban en vorig jaar in Brussel.

Ratna & Wouter

-----------------------------

Jerusalem Post / Updated Jan 4, 2008 15:24

Israel gets seats on United Nations agency panels
By HERB KEINON
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517288600&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

While Israel won a four-decade battle in 2000 to get accepted into one of the UN's regional groupings critical for full incorporation into the world body, only now is full integration into the UN system taking place as Israel is finally participating in regular deliberations of UN agencies dealing with the environment and human settlement.

In May 2000, after a long struggle, Israel was accepted into one of the five regional groupings that make up the UN: WEOG, or the Western European and Others Group. Until this time, Israel was the only country at the UN that was outside a regional grouping, and as a result was barred from membership on such UN organizations as the Security Council, UNICEF, UNESCO and numerous other UN bodies and agencies.

The reason was simple: membership in those bodies was allocated according to regional groupings, and Israel was not a member of any such group. Asia, Israel's geographic home, would not accept it.

But finally gaining entrance into WEOG was not the end of the battle, because this meant that Israel could be voted onto the governing bodies of organizations, but it did not give it the right to take part in their consultations. Another selection process inside WEOG was necessary to send Israel to those meetings.

In this selection process, certain WEOG countries objected to Israel taking part because they did not think Israel should be involved in discussions in which issues related to Israel and the Palestinians were raised. Since being chosen for those bodies needed a consensus of all WEOG state, it was always enough for one country to object to block Israel's acceptance.

Since 2000, Israel - according to Roni Leshno Yaar, the director-general of the Foreign Ministry's UN and International Organizations Division - has been trying to get into these consultations. Last month Israel was voted by WEOG to represent the grouping in consultations for two UN agencies: HABITAT, the UN Human Settlement Program, and UNEP, the UN Environment Program. Both these agencies are based in Nairobi.

Calling the move a "significant breakthrough," Leshno Yaar said, "This is an important step for Israeli diplomacy in the direction of normalizing Israel's status in the UN, and recognizing Israel's ability to contribute professionally to the regional UN bodies.