13 January 2014
A civil defense worker inspects a child’s body among victims of the September 1982 massacre at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
ReutersThe tributes and praise from various world leaders, including US President Barack Obama and Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, for Israeli war criminal Ariel Sharon who died on Saturday, are vile but sadly predictable.
But probably the most distasteful of all comes from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who declares himself “saddened by the death of Ariel Sharon.”
A UN insider with links to the Department of Political Affairs in New York – who asked not to be named in order to speak freely about the matter – told me that Ban’s statement “brings the UN’s obsequiousness towards Israel to a new high and the UN’s standing in the Middle East to a new low.”
Ban offers his “condolences to the bereaved family and to the Government and people of Israel.” Ban called Sharon “a hero to his people, first as a soldier and then a statesman.”
Finally, says Ban, “Prime Minister Sharon will be remembered for his political courage and determination to carry through with the painful and historic decision to withdraw Israeli settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip.”
Re-writing history
Ban does not acknowledge that Sharon’s “disengagement” aimed at isolating Gaza for “demographic” reasons and inaugurated a crushing siege that continues relentlessly.
But most striking, he does not acknowledge that Sharon will be most remembered by Palestinians, Lebanese and indeed quite a few Israelis, as the architect of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon in which tens of thousands of people were slaughtered.
He will be remembered by the survivors for the massacres at Qibya in October 1953, at Sabra and Shatila in 1982, and Jenin in 2002.
To me, Ban’s tribute to Sharon is the most jarring because in many minds the United Nations is still supposed to stand for the post-World War II ideal of protecting the innocent against the violence of states and statesmen.
Through the complicity of states, Sharon escaped justice.
The UN insider added that the statement’s “deliberate lack of historical awareness yet again illustrates the extent to which UN ‘job seekers’ such as UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry, whose office signed off on it, have bought into the Zionist narrative.”
“Ill-judged”
My UN contact adds: “Palestinians, particularly those who suffered because of Sharon’s war crimes, deserve an apology, though Ban’s silence would have sufficed. Outside Israel Sharon is a war criminal, inside he is a hero. It would have been better for Ban’s credibility and his effectiveness as an ‘honest broker’ in the Middle East, had he chosen not to illustrate to the world in this ill-judged statement where he stood.”
I’m not sure I agree Ban’s silence would have been preferable. At least now Ban is shorn of the mask of neutrality and there can be no doubt that he stands in full, enthusiastic complicity with Israel’s crimes against humanity.
We live in times with few moral moorings, where one day an utter mediocrity like Ban can praise Nelson Mandela, and a few weeks later call Ariel Sharon, an unrepentant mass-murder, a “hero.”
Comments
One shade of unfairness?
Permalink Leftist in London replied on
It could surely be argued that "hero to his people" is not quite calling him a hero. If I said that Himmler is a hero to neo-Nazis, that does not mean I think he is a hero, since I am not a neo-Nazi. Similarly, the execrable Ban is not Israeli. He is still utterly nauseating, but perhaps you apply one degree of contempt too many to him.
Hero of "his" people
Permalink Steve Feldman replied on
Exactly. "Hero to his people" is, today, not great praise. Mandela was a hero to all people. Martin Luther King was a leader for all people. Sharon was an unapologetic protector of "his" people at the expense of others. We can do better.
A Zero of a Hero
Permalink Yani replied on
Proclaim a national holiday! And force the Palestinians to celebrate the trumpet of this evil fat tyrant who lied and cheated at every opportunity to get what he wanted. Call it International Psychopaths Day.
Ban Ki-moon's time to leave office
Permalink Donatus replied on
The UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon cannot pretent not to be informed of the multiple war crimes of late mass killer's Ariel Sharon. In order to preserve the authority of the world body UN, it is time for president Ban Ki-moon to resign. If he does not, there should be a majority vote of the General Assembly to disapprove with this actual president. He is a shame for all his predessosors. Another question: who, from his advisery body, are responsible for this mischieve ?
A leader to a people though not a hero
Permalink Evaldas Razminas replied on
I wish there be no loss of life. I wish We can unite. I wish We live in peace.
biased
Permalink Eric replied on
At least as quoted by Abunimah, Ban's eulogical musings are not hagiographic -- but neither are they even-handed, let alone defending the downtrodden. The puppet behaves according to how the puppet masters manipulate strings.