"UNRWA acts decisively whenever staff misconduct is identified, while all employees are regularly screened, trained and required to comply with UN standards... Israel receives the names of all UNRWA staff twice a year for security screening"... "Nobody has the infrastructure, the experience, the skillset or the staff to be able to do what we do now on behalf of Palestine refugees," Christian Saunders said. "That doesn't mean UNRWA needs to exist forever. As soon as there is a recognised Palestinian administration able to assume these responsibilities, UNRWA should hand over those services. Until then, we have a mandate and an obligation to ensure that Palestine refugees have access to these critical services."

UNRWA, established in 1949, now serves around six million registered Palestine refugees, with approximately 2.6 million people currently receiving assistance across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

UNRWA

@UNRWA 

https://x.com/UNRWA/status/2084882200881766562 

Every day, UNRWA delivers education, healthcare, relief and social services to millions of Palestine Refugees. We will continue to do so until a just and durable solution is found and we can hand over to empowered Palestinian Institutions..  #UNRWAworks  Read the full article: https://chronicle.lu/category/polit

Luxembourg Reaffirms Long-Term Support for UNRWA's Humanitarian Mission

".....  Responding to a question about criticism from Luxembourg politicians who have accused UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas and alleged that Luxembourg's financial support benefits terrorism, Minister Bettel rejected the claims. He said Luxembourg had seen first-hand the projects it supports and continued to trust the agency. "To blame the whole organisation is really unacceptable," he said. "I trust UNRWA, and I will continue to trust UNRWA as long as there is no one able to replace it."

Christian Saunders also dismissed the allegations, describing them as "a smear campaign with a political end." He stressed that UNRWA acts decisively whenever staff misconduct is identified, while all employees are regularly screened, trained and required to comply with UN standards. He added that Israel receives the names of all UNRWA staff twice a year for security screening and "has the opportunity to raise concerns if it believes any staff member has links to a militant group or has committed a criminal act." "

https://www.chronicle.lu/category/politics/62440-luxembourg-reaffirms-long-term-support-for-unrwas-humanitarian-mission 

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine ]

Military Industrial Complex Infographics

 

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]  

https://designaction.org/project/military-industrial-complex-infographics/

American University Department of Anthropology

• Military Industrial Complex Infographics
• April 2024

• Project Type:

  • Data Visualization
  • Illustration
  • Social Media Graphics

David Vine, Professor of Anthropology at American University, worked with Design Action Collective to create a series of infographics that illustrate how the Military Industrial Complex functions —showing its impacts on communities within the United States and around the world. As the U.S. war machine continues to enable genocide on a global scale and violent policing in our cities, these graphics are important political education tools for our communities to understand our conditions, and find points of intervention for anti-war campaigns.

U.N. Security Council urges stronger campaign against [Da'esh] Islamic State

The U.N. Security Council chamber, a gift from Norway, was designed by Norwegian artist Arnstein Arneberg. A large mural by Per Krohg (Norway), symbolizing the promise of future peace and individual freedom, covers most of the east wall.

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-security-council-urges-stronger-campaign-against-011023522.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Friday pushed for a bombing campaign in Iraq against Islamic State militants and associated extremist groups to be strengthened and expanded. 

A U.S.-led military coalition has been bombing Islamic State fighters who hold a large swathe of territory in both Iraq and Syria, two countries involved in complex multi-sided civil wars in which nearly every country in the Middle East has a stake.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday told military leaders from more than 20 countries working with the coalition that he was deeply concerned about the Islamic State's advances at the Syrian town of Kobani and in western Iraq.

"The members of the Security Council urged the international community, in accordance with international law, to further strengthen and expand support for the government of Iraq, including Iraqi Security Forces, in the fight against (Islamic State) and associated armed groups," it said in a statement.

Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State in Syria are training members of the group to fly in three captured fighter jets, a monitoring group said on Friday, saying it was the first time the militant group had taken to the air.

The 15-member Security Council "stressed that (Islamic State) must be defeated and that the intolerance, violence and hatred it espouses must be stamped out."

The United States has been trying to persuade Turkey to take an active role in the campaign against Islamic State. 

Ankara this week agreed to help equip and train some Syrian armed groups fighting the militants, as well as the Syrian government. U.S. and Turkish officials say talks are under way on allowing the use of Turkish facilities for countries engaged in the campaign against Islamic State.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Ken Wills)

***

UN Security Council urges stronger campaign against ISIS

 

Palestinians want UN Security Council to vote on Israel pullout

Syrian refugees, sectarian tensions endanger Lebanon

Syrian refugee children collect plastics as they stand along a street in south of Sidon, southern Lebanon June 10, 2014. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]  

http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-refugees-sectarian-tensions-endanger-lebanon-u-n-150552237.html

By Stephanie Nebehay

Related Stories

• Militants in Lebanon seek to emulate Islamic State Reuters
• Syria refugees soon a third of Lebanon population, says UN AFP
• Suicide bombers bring Iraq conflict ever closer to Lebanon Christian Science Monitor
• Lebanese MPs fail to elect president for eighth time Reuters
• Hezbollah fighters killed in clash on Syria-Lebanon border Reuters

GENEVA (Reuters) - Lebanon is at risk of crumbling as a state under the burden of 1.1 million Syrian refugees and foreign donors must make good on pledges of support to help it survive the crisis, the top U.N. official in the small coastal country warned on Monday.

Political and religious leaders in Lebanon, both Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim, so far have kept a lid on growing tensions but donor nations have not honored aid commitments, said Ross Mountain, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator. 

"This is no longer just a humanitarian emergency," said Mountain. "It is what the former president (Michel Suleiman) described as an existential crisis for Lebanon. It's about the security of the country, the stability of the country and I would suggest what happens in Lebanon will affect the region."

Over 1.12 million refugees from Syria's civil war next door have registered in Lebanon, accounting for one-quarter of its population and exacerbating a severe water shortage, Mountain said. The influx is expected to reach 1.5 million by year-end.

"We fear (tensions) will expand even further and not only result in Syrian-Lebanese interactions but also unfortunately raise the specter of Lebanese-Lebanese inter-sectarian problems," Mountain told a news briefing in Geneva.

Syria's Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian divisions are largely mirrored in Lebanon, where civil war raged from 1975 to 1990. 

Lebanese authorities have acknowledged the crisis, with the social affairs minister saying last week that the country faced political and economic collapse as the number of refugees threaten to exceed a third of the population. 

"NOT AN EARLY WARNING"

The Middle East, reeling from crises in Syria, Iraq and now Gaza, does not need Lebanon to be mired in another civil war, he said. "If in our business it's important to talk about early warning, it's not early but I'm warning." 

Yet donors have only contributed $500 million towards a $1.6 billion appeal for aid progams in Lebanon this year, he said.

"It certainly hinges on money but doesn't only hinge on money. While there have been a number of security incidents linked to extremists, some bombings a couple of months ago and the rise of ISIS, the good news at the moment is that the Lebanese security forces have been effective in limiting that."

ISIS - Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant - is an Islamist militant force in control of wide tracts of eastern Syria and adjacent northern Iraq. It recently shortened its name to Islamic State and, seeking to rewrite the Middle East map, has declared a mediaeval-style caliphate in the region it holds.

Islamic State's success has emboldened like-minded militants...READ MORE

Iraqi Christians flee homes amid militant push

Iraqi Christians flee homes amid militant push: In this Sunday, June 15, 2014 photo, an Iraqi works on a temporary mosaic of Christian symbols made from the area's produce, including wheat, beans and lentils to commemorate an upcoming harvest feast, at the Chaldean Church of the Virgin Mary of the Harvest, in Alqosh, a village of some 6,000 inhabitants about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Mosul, northern Iraq. Dozens of Christian families that fled to this ancient Iraqi village have taken a much-traversed route -- many from their minority community have escaped to Alqosh before, in fear for their lives. This time, few say they want to go back to their homes, seeking safety under the Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga. (AP Photo)

http://news.yahoo.com/iraqi-christians-flee-homes-amid-militant-push-122359051.html

ALQOSH, Iraq (AP) — Over the past decade, Iraqi Christians have fled repeatedly to this ancient mountainside village, seeking refuge from violence, then returning home when the danger eased. Now they are doing it again as Islamic militants rampage across northern Iraq, but this time few say they ever want to go back to their homes.

The flight is a new blow to Iraq's dwindling Christian community, which is almost as old as the religion itself but which has already been devastated since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. During the past 11 years, at least half of the country's Christian population has fled the country, according to some estimates, to escape frequent attacks by Sunni Muslim militants targeting them and their churches.

Now many of those who held out and remained may be giving up completely after fighters belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant swept over the city of Mosul and a broad swath of the country the past week.

"I'm not going back," said Lina, who fled Mosul with her family as the militants swept in and came to Alqosh, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) to the north.

"Each day we went to bed in fear," the 57-year-old woman said, sitting in a house for displaced people. "In our own houses we knew no rest." Like other Christians who fled here, she spoke on condition she be identified only by her first name for fear for her safety.

In leaving, the Christians are emptying out communities that date back to the first centuries of the religion, including Chaldean, Assyrian and Armenian churches. The past week, some 160 Christian families — mosly from Mosul — have fled to Alqosh, mayor Sabri Boutani told The Associated Press, consulting first on the number with his wife by speaking in Chaldean, the ancient language spoken by many residents.

Alqosh, dating back at least to the 1st century BC, is a jumble of pastel-painted homes nestled at the base of a high craggy hill among rolling plains of wheat fields. The village's population of 6,000 is about half Christian and half ethnic Kurds. Located just outside the autonomous Kurdish zone of northern Iraq, Kurdish fighters known as peshmerga have moved into the town to protect it.

Many Christians are deciding that the comparatively liberal and prosperous Kurdish regions are their safest bet.

"Every Christian prefers to stay in Kurdistan," said Abu Zeid, an engineer. He too said he wouldn't be going back to Mosul.

"It's a shame because Mosul is the most important city in Iraq for Christians," he added. Mosul is said to be the site of the burial of Jonah, the prophet who tradition says was swallowed by a whale.

Iraq was estimated to have more than 1 million Christians before the 2003 invasion and topping of Saddam Hussein. Now church officials estimate only 450,000 remain within Iraq borders. Militants have targeted Christians in repeated waves in Baghdad and the north. The Chaldean Catholic cardinal was kidnapped in 2008 by extremists and killed. Churches around the country have been bombed repeatedly.

The exodus from Mosul — a Sunni-majority city that during the American presence in Iraq was an al-Qaida stronghold — has been even more dramatic. From a pre-2003 population of around 130,000 Christians, there were only about 10,000 left before the Islamic State fighters overran the city a week ago.

Abu Zeid estimated that now only 2,000 Christians remain in the city.

"They see no future there," said George Demacopoulos, the director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at the Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York.

"There is no short-term solution," he said in a phone interview. "I think the only prescription for a long-term solution is a kind of political stabilization of the region that is enabled without military force."

Christians who have not left Iraq completely often flee their homes to other parts of Iraq when the danger is highest in hopes of returning later.

Boutani, the mayor, said this was the sixth time in 11 years that Christians from other areas have flocked to Alqosh for refuge. He himself fled here from Baghdad in 2009 after a church bombing in the capital.

This is the third time that Adnan, a 60-year-old Mosul shoe shop owner, has sought shelter in Alqosh. He came in 2008 after a priest in Mosul was killed, then again in 2010 after rumors spread of an imminent attack on Christians. Each time, he and his family returned after Iraqi security officials guaranteed Christians' safety.

"They said, we will protect you," he recalled. "But now — where's the government?"

The Vatican for years has voiced concern about the flight of Christians from the Middle East, driven out by war, poverty and discrimination.

During his recent trip to Jordan, Pope Francis met with Iraqi and Syrian Christians and denounced the wars, weapons and conflicts that have forced them from their homes.

"All of us want peace!" Francis told a gathering of refugees near the River Jordan. "I ask myself: who is selling arms to these people to make war?"

In Alqosh, the newcomers and the residents united in prayer at Sunday Mass in the Chaldean Church of the Virgin Mary of the Harvest, held by Friar Gabriel Tooma.

On the church floor was spread a mosaic made of beans, lentils, wheat and other produce from the area, assembled to commemorate the upcoming harvest. Before the service, volunteers hurried to finish the images of Jesus and Mary, and were filling out the details of Pope Francis' face, sketched out with white beans.

"People are afraid of what's coming next," Tooma said. "I fear there will be a day when people will say: 'There were once Christians in Iraq.'"

As he walked with his wife and daughter in the 7th century St Hormoz monastery, built into the hill overlooking Alqosh, Abu Zeid said he went back to Mosul on Friday to see if his house was still standing.

Some of the militants in control of the city tried to show that Christians were welcome.

Gunmen stopped him and asked if he was a Christian, Abu Zeid said. When he nodded back, a gunman told him: "Welcome to your home."

The Chaldean church in Mosul was looted, he said, and he saw gunmen drag the accused thieves to the church and order them to return stolen property.

He and other displaced Christians highly doubt the shows of goodwill. Still, some said they have no choice but to eventually return.

"I'm 60 years old," said Adnan, the shoe salesman. "It would be hard to start over again."