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UN / MIDDLE EAST
STORY: UN / MIDDLE EAST
TRT: 3:30
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 27 JANUARY 2010, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
27 JANUARY 2010, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs:
"We urge the Israeli government not to finalize the approvals of these plans. The international community does not recognize Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem, and the status of the city remains a final status issue for negotiations, through which a way must be found for Jerusalem to emerge as capital of two states."
5. Med shot, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, United Nations:
“On 15 January 2010, an arrangement was concluded whereby the Government of Israel made a payment of US$10.5 million to the United Nations in respect of losses sustained in the nine incidents investigated by the Gaza Board of Inquiry. In the light of this payment, the United Nations has agreed that the financial issues relating to those incidents have been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.”
7. Med shot, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon listening
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations:
“Israel is blatantly and arrogantly accelerating to artificially create an overwhelmingly Jewish majority there and further entrench this de facto annexation of the city.”
9. Med shot, Israel’s ambassador taking notes
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Gabriela Shalev, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations:
“Israel instituted an unprecedented policy of restraint throughout the settlements of the West Bank. This measure is the latest demonstration that Israel is prepared to take difficult steps for peace. We should ask the Palestinian Observer why the Authority that he represents refrains from accepting our outstretched hand to negotiate a historic peace”.
12. Med shot, permanent observer of Palestine listening
13. Wide shot, Security Council
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Alejandro D. Wolff, United States Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations:
“The status of Jerusalem and all other permanent status issues should be resolved through negotiations. We disagree with some Israeli actions in Jerusalem affecting Palestinians in areas such as housing, including the continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes. Neither party should take actions that could unilaterally preempt, or appear preempt, negotiations.”
FILE – UNDP - 9 FEBRUARY 2009, NORTHERN GAZA
15. Tracking shot, destruction in Northern Gaza
16. Tracking shot, destroyed buildings
20. Pan left, destruction site of the 'American International School in Gaza', and other building
27 OCTOBER 2009, EAST JERUSALEM, ISRAEL
21. Med shot, women in agony
22. Med shot, police cars and police by foot leaving
23. Close up, young boy of watches demolished house
The Security Council today voiced concern over impasse in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Addressing the Security Council, United Nations (UN) Political Affairs official Oscar Fernandez-Taranco reiterated the Secretary-General’s concern about the Israeli settlements.
He noted that the construction of some 692 new housing units in three existing settlements was announced at the end of December, and plans to house 24 settler families in the Mount of Olives and to build 50 new settler housing units in Shaufat – both Palestinian neighbourhoods – were made public earlier this month.
“We urge the Israeli Government not to finalize approvals of these plans,” he said. Taranco stressed that the international community does not recognize Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, and the status of the city remains a final issue for negotiations “through which a way must be found for Jerusalem to emerge as the capital of two States.” Taranco also reiterated repeated calls by the UN to end the blockade of Gaza.
Palestine’s observer to the UN Ambassador Riyad H. Mansour accused Israel of artificially creating an “overwhelmingly Jewish majority” and further entrenching, “this de facto annexation of the city.”
Israel’s Ambassador Gabriela Shalev underlined Israel’s, “unprecedented policy of restraint” throughout the settlements of the West Bank saying that it was, “the latest demonstration that Israel is prepared to take difficult steps for peace” and rhetorically asked the Permanent Observer to explain the reasons why the Palestinian Authority that he represents refrains from accepting Israel’s outstretched hand to negotiate a historic peace.
US Ambassador Alejandro D. Wolff told the Security Council that the status of Jerusalem and all other permanent status issues should be resolved only through negotiations.
He also expressed disapproval for some Israeli actions in Jerusalem affecting Palestinians in areas such as housing, including the continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes. “Neither party should take actions that could unilaterally preempt, or appear preempt, negotiations”.
The Security Council was also informed about the “satisfactory conclusion” of the agreement by the Israeli government to make a payment of US$10.5 million to the United Nations for damage to the world’s body’s properties in Gaza during last year’s Israeli offensive against Hamas.
During the three-week operation Israeli shells struck the UN’s main centre in Gaza City, setting ablaze a warehouse with hundreds of tons of food and medicine, and at least three UN schools run for Palestinian refugee children were also attacked.
The incidents were investigated by the UN Headquarters Board of Inquiry early last year after which Israel and the UN held discussions over compensation.
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