Showing posts with label Danny Danon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Danny Danon. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Israel and Trump Admin Race to Stop UN Settlement Blacklist - CBN NEWS CHARISMA NEWS

(Good Free Photos)
Weeks ahead of the expected completion of a U.N. database of companies that operate in Israel's West Bank settlements, Israel and the Trump Administration are working feverishly to prevent its publication.
While Israel is usually quick to brush off U.N. criticism, officials say they are taking the so-called "blacklist" seriously, fearing its publication could have devastating consequences by driving companies away, deterring others from coming and prompting investors to dump shares of Israeli firms. Dozens of major Israeli companies, as well as multinationals that do business in Israel, are expected to appear on the list.
"We will do everything we can to ensure that this list does not see the light of day," Israel's U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, told The Associated Press.
The U.N.'s top human rights body, the Human Rights Council, ordered the compilation of the database in March 2016, calling on U.N. rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein to "investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on Palestinians."
The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements, built on occupied land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state, to be illegal. Israel rejects such claims, citing the land's strategic and religious significance, and says the matter should be resolved in negotiations.
Israeli officials say that about 100 local companies that operate in the West Bank and east Jerusalem have received warning letters that they will be on the list. In addition, some 50 international companies, mostly American and European, also have been warned.
The companies have not been publicly identified, but one official said they include Israeli banks, supermarkets, restaurant chains, bus lines and security firms, as well as international giants that provide equipment or services used to build or maintain settlements. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
The only company to confirm receiving a warning letter has been Bezeq, Israel's national telephone company. Bezeq's chief executive, Stella Handler, posted a copy of the letter sent by Zeid's office in September on her Facebook page. It accused Bezeq of using West Bank land for infrastructure, providing phone and internet services to settlements and operating sales offices in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Handler angrily wrote that Bezeq provides service to all customers, regardless of race or where they live.
"The council's bias against Israel is so extreme that it has lost all relevance in the world," she wrote. "We will not cooperate with a move that is all in all anti-Israeli propaganda."
But hours later, Handler removed the post, saying she had done so at the request of the government. The Israeli official confirmed the government has asked companies not to speak about the issue. Bezeq declined comment.
Israel has long accused the United Nations, and particularly the rights council, of being biased against it.
Israel is the only country that faces an examination of its rights record at each of the council's three sessions each year. Some 70 resolutions, or about quarter of the council's country-specific resolutions, have been aimed at Israel. That is nearly triple the number for the second-place country: Syria, where hundreds of thousands have been killed in a devastating six-year civil war.
Israeli leaders and many non-governmental groups also complain that some of the world's worst violators of human rights, including Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Congo and Cuba, sit on the council.
Some Western diplomats have said the database could set a harmful precedent by blurring the line between business and human rights on issues that are better left to trade policy than the Geneva council.
Israel seems to have little leverage over the council. But its campaign has received a big boost from the United States. The Trump administration has taken a tough line against the U.N., demanding reforms and in October, withdrawing from the cultural agency UNESCO because of alleged anti-Israel bias.
In a speech to the council last June, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley railed against its makeup and demanded that Israel be removed as a permanent fixture on its agenda. She also hinted that the U.S. could quit the council.
The upcoming release of the database could test that commitment. It has triggered a quiet, but high-stakes effort by Israel and the U.S. to try to block its release.
"We just view that type of blacklist as counterproductive," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said recently.
Danon, the Israeli ambassador, accused the council of unfairly targeting Israel at a time of conflict throughout the world, saying it amounted to a "blacklist" of Jewish companies and those who do business with the Jewish state.
He also said it would turn the rights council into "the world's biggest promoter of BDS," an acronym for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement—a grassroots international boycott movement against Israel. Most of the companies linked to the blacklist are frequent targets of the BDS movement.
"What kind of message will this send?" Dannon said.
But Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, said the list is an "important step" moving from verbal condemnation to practical action against the settlements. He expressed hope that it would lead companies to stop doing business with the settlements and even lead to sanctions against those that continue.
The original resolution calling for the list stipulates only that the council's high commissioner is requested "to transmit the data therein in the form of a report" to the council.
To that end, Israel and its allies have been encouraging the council to leave the list out and submit only a basic, broad-strokes report that doesn't name names, according to several U.N. diplomats familiar with the discussions. The diplomats were not authorized to comment publicly and demanded anonymity.
The pressure campaign has shown some signs of success. After an earlier delay, Zeid's office said the release of the "report" has been pushed back again, from December to early next year.
For now, it does not appear that the list's publication would be the direct trigger that leads the U.S. to quit the council. Haley's office said it is focused on implementing reforms on the council, though publication of the list could make U.S. participation "less likely."
Eugene Kontorovich, the director of international law at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a conservative think tank in Jerusalem, said he was "deeply skeptical" the report will not be published and said the Israeli government would be better off trying to discredit the report ahead of time. "I think it's important for people to understand how bad this is," he said.
The resolution, he warned, would cause "reputational harm" to companies and put "a cloud over business in Israel." Although nonbinding, he said it could be used as a basis for future legal action. "The goal of this is to cause problems for Israel," he said. 
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Thursday, March 30, 2017

VIDEO: Watch As The UN Turns Blue & White! - Israel Today

VIDEO: Watch As The UN Turns Blue & White!

Thursday, March 30, 2017 |  Israel Today Staff
Yesterday, Wednesday March 29th, the second annual "Ambassadors Against BDS" meeting took place at the United Nations. Attending were 2000 people that were hoping that Ambassador Haley would deliver some more of her pro-Israel sentiments that she delivered at the AIPAC conference just a couple of days earlier.
She certainly did not disappoint anyone pro-Israel and lived up to what was expected of her.
"The effort to delegitimize the state of Israel being waged on college campuses and the anti-Israel obsession at the UN are one in the same. They both seek to deny Israel’s right to exist," Haley said. "They are both efforts to intimidate her friends and embolden her enemies. They are both extensions of an ancient hatred," she continued.

Israel's UN Ambassador, Danny Danon, thanked Ambassador Haley and said, "Thank you Ambassador Haley for recognizing the dangers of BDS and for being the first US governor to sign legislation against BDS. And thank you Ambassador Haley for the strong stance taken by the US for condemning all forms of anti-Semitism."
He continued, "We are here today with a simple message for those who seek to harm the Jewish state and the Jewish people. We will keep fighting until we eliminate BDS completely, from the campuses to the UN, and we will keep fighting until anti-Semitism is finally defeated."
There have been bi-partisan efforts across thye aisle in Congress recently to counter BDS activities in the US. For example, Republican Senator Rob Portman and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin as well as Democratic Representative Juan Vargas and Republican Representative Peter Roskam have jointly introduced the Israel Anti-Boycott Act.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Monday urged Congress to swiftly pass the bill saying, "This bipartisan legislation is urgently needed to reinforce our country’s commitment to ensuring that Israel is treated fairly and attacks on Israel at the UN and by the BDS movement will not succeed. By prohibiting boycotts or requests for boycotts imposed by international governmental organizations against Israel, the Israel Anti-Boycott Act will add a significant tool to similar bans already imposed by legislation adopted with bipartisan majorities in Congress."
Do your part! Support Israel and help fight BDS on all fronts.

WATCH NIKKI HALEY'S SPEECH HERE

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Sunday, December 25, 2016

Holding Bible, Israeli Ambassador Slams UN Security Council - Israel Today



Holding Bible, Israeli Ambassador Slams UN Security Council

Sunday, December 25, 2016 |  Israel Today Staff
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, gave an impassioned and biblical response to the Security Council’s passing of a resolution denying Jews the right to live in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.
The vote took place just a day before Hanukkah. Danon noted that if the Greek overlords of the time couldn’t keep down the Jews, then neither can today’s UN.
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Friday, November 25, 2016

Israel Thrilled by Trump's Appointment of Nikki Haley - Israel Today

Israel Thrilled by Trump's Appointment of Nikki Haley

Thursday, November 24, 2016 |  Israel Today Staff
Israel was among the first, and was certainly the most exuberant of UN member states to welcome US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for ambassador to the world body.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley was selected for the position on Wednesday, and Israel Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon immediately hailed the decision.
Haley is a “longstanding and true friend of Israel,” wrote Danon in a statement that went on to note the governor’s “outspoken [fight] against the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement in her state and throughout the US.”
While laws pushed through by Haley do not mention Israel specifically, they forbid state bodies from doing business with any companies or individuals who are engaged in a boycott against an entity with which South Carolina does trade.
Earlier this year, Haley promised that if the Republicans won the recent election they would, contrary to the Obama Administration, “make international agreements that were celebrated in Israel and protested in Iran, not the other way around.”
Danon vowed that with Haley filling the critical position of US Ambassador to the UN, “we at the Israeli mission will continue to work in full partnership with our friends in the American Mission, as we further strengthen the special bond and shared values between Israel and the US.”
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Tuesday, June 14, 2016

In Historic First, UN Names Israel Head of Permanent Committee by Ariella Mendlowitz - BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, speaks at the UN. (Photo: Danny Danon Official Facebook)

In Historic First, UN Names Israel Head of Permanent Committee

“I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Yerushalayim, they shall never hold their peace day nor night: ‘Ye that are the LORD’S remembrancers, take ye no rest.” Isaiah 62:6 (The Israel Bible™)
Israel has made history at the United Nations.
For the first time since its inception into the organization in 1949, Israel was elected on Monday to head a UN Legal Committee. Specifically, the Sixth Committee, which manages such issues as legal questions and fighting global terrorism. As Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon will chair the committee for the upcoming UN General Assembly (GA), reported The Times of Israel.
“I am proud to be the first Israeli elected to this position,” said Ambassador Danon upon his win. “Israel is a world leader in international law and in fighting terrorism. We are pleased to have the opportunity to share our knowledge with the countries of the world.”
The Western European and Others Group (WEOG) in the UN, whose turn it was to pick a chairman for the committee, nominated Danon for the job. Among the WEOG’s pro-Israel countries are Australia, Canada, and the United States. In 2000, Israel became a temporary member of the WEOG and joined permanently in December 2013.
According to The Times of Israel, the chair positions of the GA’s main committees are appropriated on a rotational basis and are typically confirmed without need for a vote. But in this particular case, Yemen, on behalf of the Arab Group, challenged Israel’s nomination and demanded a vote be held.
Danny Danon sits at the United Nations in New York (Photo: Official Danny Danon Facebook page)
Danny Danon sits at the United Nations in New York (Photo: Official Danny Danon Facebook page)
Despite months of behind-the-scenes diplomatic struggles and ferocious anti-Israel campaigning, however, 109 nations voted in favor of Danon’s appointment. (The election process only included votes that were cast for the particular candidate and did not include ‘nay’ votes.) The election was held via secret ballot in which all 193 members of the UN could vote.
“We will not allow dictatorships and anti-Israel countries to harm our standing in the international community,” said Danon. “We are a full member of the UN and any attempt to deny us of our legal rights in this organization will be met with uncompromising rejection.”
Ambassador Danon’s election received widespread support among many of the UN’s member states, led by the US and European countries, according to Ynet. Some of his supporters even took to social media to wish the Ambassador congratulations.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

A Pro-Israel Moment at the United Nations? - Israel Today

A Pro-Israel Moment at the United Nations?

Wednesday, June 01, 2016 |  Israel Today Staff
“Look around you. This is an historic moment in the UN!”
Those were the words of Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon on Tuesday as he looked out over a packed General Assembly Hall at the start of an event opposing the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
More than 2,000 attended the session, making it one of the rare occasions, if not the only to date, in which the UN General Assembly Hall could be described as a place of pro-Israel sentiment.
“Never before have so many people, from so many places, gathered here in the General Assembly to declare unanimous support for the State of Israel,” Danon continued.
Under the banner “Building Bridges, Not Boycotts”, Danon explained to the international community that the BDS phenomenon is a thin mask for “modern-day anti-Semitism”, and urged the world to “put an end to its ideology of hatred and lies. …We will not allow the forces of hate to demonize Israel. Together, we will defeat BDS.”
The gathering was addressed by other Jewish and Israeli leaders, and was also regaled by American-Jewish singer and songwriter Matisyahu whose hit “Jerusalem” elicited cheers and applause from the audience.
The video presentation was screened during the session.

Watch here: Pro-Israel Movement at the UN
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