{"id":202258,"date":"2012-10-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T18:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=202258"},"modified":"2019-03-12T18:19:59","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T18:19:59","slug":"auto-insert-202258","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-202258\/","title":{"rendered":"No rockets from Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA schools in Gaza during the Gaza war of 2008-2009 – Israeli’s Channel Two retration – Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA press release"},"content":{"rendered":"
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No rockets from Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA schools in Gaza during the Gaza war of 2008-2009<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Israel’s Channel Two publishes correction<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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24 October 2012
\nEast Jerusalem<\/p><\/div>\n

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Israel’s highest-rating news programme, Channel Two News, has published a statement correcting false claims that rockets were fired from schools operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA) during the Gaza war in 2008-2009. The statement makes clear that Israeli officials themselves acknowledged that such claims were false and that there was no evidence to support them.<\/p><\/div>\n

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“We heard this misinformation during the war when there was shelling on and around the Agency’s schools and our main warehouse in Gaza”, said Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA Spokesperson Chris Gunness, “but Israeli officials made it clear to the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ during the war itself that they knew claims about militants in Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA installations were completely false. Constant, unchecked repetition of this misinformation has been very damaging to the Agency and has produced some very poor and biased journalism, which I will continue to confront. This is the third time in just a few months that a major news organisation has issued a public retraction because of false information about Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA.”<\/p><\/div>\n

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The shelling in and around Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA installations, such as schools and the Agency’s warehouse in Gaza, were condemned by Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other world leaders. In a statement issued on 15 January 2009, Mr. Ban expressed “outrage”, saying he had protested to Israel’s defence and foreign ministers. The defence minister had told Mr. Ban that the shelling of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA warehouse was a “grave mistake”.<\/p><\/div>\n

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After the warehouse was destroyed along with all material and equipment within it, the Israeli government paid over USD 10 million to the United Nations. “Would all this really have happened? Would all this really have been said by such senior officials if there were militants firing rockets from our installations?” asked Gunness.<\/p><\/div>\n

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– Ends –<\/p><\/div>\n

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Background information<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and is mandated to provide assistance and protection to a population of some 5 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance and emergency assistance.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Financial support to Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA has not kept pace with an increased demand for services caused by growing numbers of registered refugees, expanding need, and deepening poverty. As a result, the Agency's General Fund, supporting Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA’s core activities and 97 per cent reliant on voluntary contributions, has begun each year with a large projected deficit. Currently the budget deficit stands at USD 37 million.<\/p><\/div>\n

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For more information, please contact:<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Chris Gunness
\nÄ¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA Spokesperson
\nMobile: +972 (0)54 240 2659
\nOffice: +972 (0)2 589 0267<\/span>
\n<\/span>c.gunness@unrwa.org<\/u><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

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Sami Mshasha
\nÄ¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA Arabic Spokesperson
\nMobile: +972 (0)54 216 8295
\nOffice: +972 (0)2 589 0724<\/span>
\n<\/span>s.mshasha@unrwa.org<\/u><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No rockets from Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA schools in Gaza during the Gaza war of 2008-2009 Israel’s Channel Two publishes correction 24 October 2012 East Jerusalem Israel’s highest-rating news programme, Channel Two News, has published a statement correcting false claims that rockets were fired from schools operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,2441,1857,2145,1745],"entity":[5343,1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-202258","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-education-and-culture","document-subject-incidents","document-subject-public-information","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","entity-palestine-plo-palestinian-authority","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/202258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/202258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=202258"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=202258"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=202258"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=202258"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=202258"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=202258"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=202258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}