ElBaradei is at it again:
VIENNA, Austria – The head of the U.N. nuclear agency canceled interviews with the BBC over its refusal to air an appeal for victims of the Gaza conflict, saying Wednesday that the decision violated “basic human decency.”
Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei added an influential voice to growing criticism of Britain’s publicly funded broadcaster, which says airing the appeal would have damaged its impartiality in coverage of the conflict.
ElBaradei’s office said he had canceled scheduled interviews with BBC radio and World Service television because he believes the broadcaster’s refusal to air the appeal “violates the rules of basic human decency which are there to help vulnerable people irrespective of who is right or wrong.”
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“These people simply need your help,” intones a solemn male voiceover as the images portray the impact of three weeks of intense fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in Gaza. The fighting killed more than 1200 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
Some of the images show elderly Palestinian women crying as they stand on the rubble-filled spot where their homes used to stand.
The narrator, who is not identified, describes how the sewer system has collapsed, leading to serious public health risks, and describes the hospitals as overwhelmed and under-equipped. He adds that a donation of just 25 pounds ($35) would provide blankets for eight children.
“Please donate now,” the appeal concludes, offering detailed instructions on how to send money.
How about they decide they would rather buy blankets than bombs with the promised reconstruction money?
Bomb Explodes Near Gaza, Threatening Ceasefire (Wrapup)
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (BosNewsLife)– A fragile ceasefire between Israel and the militant group Hamas was threatened Tuesday, January 27, when a bomb exploded on the Israeli side of the Gaza border killing an Israeli soldier and injuring three others, the Israeli army said.
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Hamas and Fatah leaders met in Egypt for the first time in ten months as Egyptian officials reportedly warned Palestinian officials to form a unity government and achieve a deal with Israel as soon as possible before Israeli elections take place, February 10.
Egypt has warned both factions that if the Likud Party led by Benjamin Netanyahu will win the elections, Islamists may “lose everything”.
Both groups have been bitterly engaged in an intense rivalry, with reports that Hamas “brutally tortured and killed” Fatah members accusing them of collaborating with Israel.
The rival Palestinian parties are also contending for control of $2 billion in promised reconstruction money for rebuilding the Gaza Strip following the recent three week war.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the crux of the problem was that some countries under investigation, the latest being Syria, had failed to ratify an agency protocol permitting short-notice IAEA visits to sites not declared to be nuclear to ensure no bomb-related work was going on at secret locations.
