Bearing Witness to the UN in Geneva: Sderot Media Center Director Noam Bedein Presents Sderot’s Case to UN Judges

#Geneva, #United Nations, #UN, #War crimes, #Gaza conflict, #Hamas, #Israel, #Noam Bedein, #Noam Shalit, #Sderot Media Center, #Judge Richard Goldstone, #rockets, #terror, #Palestinians

By: Noam Bedein

Director Sderot Media Center

http://www.sderotmedia.org.il/

On July 6th, I traveled to Geneva to testify before the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. Participating in the delegations were Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin, Dr Alan Marcus the director strategic planning branch in Ashkelon, Ophir Shinhar of Sapir College, and Dr. Mirelda Sidrer who was injured during a rocket attack on a medical facility at the Ashkelon mall.

*From left to right: Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin, Dr. Mirelda Sidrer, Hillel Neuer and Dr. Alan Marcus.

The Israeli delegation also included Noam Shalit, who impassionedly spoke on behalf of his son, Gilad, who was abducted three years ago by Palestinian terrorists and has since been held by Hamas.

The Israeli government officially refused to cooperate with the UN mission, since the UN investigation had already formulated conclusions asserting that Israel had committed war crimes during the December-January war.
At the same time, however, the head of the UN fact finding mission, South African Judge Richard Goldstone, told the Israeli media that he would like to hear both sides of the conflict. "The aim of the public hearings was to let the face of human suffering be seen and to let the voices of the victims be heard."

In preparation for the Geneva hearing, the UN mission invited the Sderot Media Center , a Sderot NGO, to prepare material, footage and information regarding the impact of the Gaza bombardment of the Israeli civilian population in the Negev during the Gaza war. The UN Mission aimed to at obtain an unofficial Israeli perspective.

Before the UN hearing in Geneva, the Israeli delegation received a briefing from Hillel Neuer, head of NGO 'UN Watch.' Neuer provided background on the UN fact finding mission and the agenda of each judge on the UN investigating board.

During the days leading up to the testimony, it was not easy to sleep - as the only resident of Sderot and the western Negev in this delegation, knowing that there would be only 30 minutes to convey how aerial terror has devastatingly impacted the civilian population of Sderot.

At the same time, the UN afforded an opportunity for Sderot Media Center, which specializes in communicating the human story of Sderot and life under continuous rocket terror to decision makers around the world , to finally reach the UN.

While the delegation got ready to testify in the “lion’s den,” it was less than sobering to know that one of the UN judges included Professor Christine Chinkin from London. In a Sunday Times article published on January 11th , Judge Chinkin supported the allegation that “Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is not self defense, it’s a war crime.”

Israeli reporters in Geneva asked hard questions:

"Why testify before a such a ‘neutral’ judge who claims that Israel does not have the right to defend her citizens and whose actions “ amount to aggression violating international law and human rights law?"

"Why testify when the government of Israel itself has boycotted the investigation which already formulated it allegations against Israel before the investigation commenced?"

However, the presence of a UN invited delegation from Israel created a precedent.

Hillel Neuer of Human Rights Watch noted that never in the 16 years of operating in Geneva had there ever been a time when the UN invited and even sponsored a delegation from Israel to give testimony - until now.

This time, the UN provided an opportunity for ordinary people from Israel to make their voices heard across the world. It was an honor as a resident of Sderot to partake in such an event.

Yet the long road to peace and justice for Sderot and Negev residents does not end before a panel of UN judges or a commissioned report.
Residents of Israel who act as witnesses to terror against the Jewish people, are obligated to speak up and convey the experience of what it is like to live under sustained rocket attacks-defined as a terror act and crime against humanity.

*Noam Bedein in the main hall of the UN Headquarters before testifying.

After screening two short videos in front of the panel of UN judges, which depicted the 15 seconds that Sderot residents and their children have to run for their lives when the rocket alarm is activated by impending Gaza rockets, I concluded my presentation with the following thoughts and questions.

“I do not have enough fingers, to count on my hands the amount of times rockets exploded just a few meters from a kindergarten--would any other western democracy in the world tolerate even one rocket being fired towards their territory? Why is it that we must wait, until a kindergarten or classroom packed with children, is struck directly by a rocket in order for Israel to gain international support, to protect and do what is right for our own people?"

US President Barack Obama put it best when he visited a devastated home in Sderot during the 2008 campaign:
"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing."

There were no questions or reactions from the UN judges. We will all have to wait, along with all the residents of southern Israel, to peruse the Geneva verdict on the war when the UN Mission report will be released in September

To the Three Clowns that Showed Us the Durban Circus: SMC Invites you to Sderot

#Durban conference, #Ahmadinejad, #Iran, #Grad missiles, #Sderot Media Center, #United Nations, #Israel,

http://www.sderotmedia.com/
By • Jacob Shrybman

Dear Rafael, Jonathan, and Jeremy, I would like to thank you and extend an open invitation for you to come visit Sderot, Israel so we can thank you in person for opposing the United Nations’ institutionalized anti-Semitism and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s diabolical diatribes.

We here in Sderot and southern Israel are living under the execution of the ideas Iranian President Ahmadinejad professes.

It is no secret that Iran supplies and largely finances the terror that the world has been witnessing in southern Israel for over eight years now but Iranian President is still invited to promote his beliefs on America’s university campuses and United Nations conferences on human rights. Dressed as clowns to object to Ahmadinejad and the Durban conference itself you demonstrated exactly what countless objectors around the world believe- it’s a joke and a circus.

Yesterday I took a group around Sderot to give them a sense of what it is like to live under the daily threat of missile attacks from the Gaza Strip. I took them to see the remnants of grad missiles that Iran directly supplies and qassam rockets that Iran finances to help plague the city. We then went atop a hill next to Kibbutz Nir Am, right outside Sderot, to a viewpoint of the Gaza Strip less than a mile away.

In clear view of the Gaza Strip cities of Beit Hanun and Jabalya from which missiles are fired, one can see how southern Israelis are not living hundreds of miles away from Iran but living with Iran right in our backyard.

After work yesterday evening I rode to the coastal city of Ashqelon, about 20 minutes northwest of Sderot, to sit on the beach and enjoy the sunset. As my buddies from the Sderot Media Center and I sat on the sand watching the peaceful sun lower over the calm water, we couldn’t help but discuss where we would run for shelter if the Tzeva Adom (Color Red) alarm sounded warning us of an incoming missile attack.

The grad missiles that have a capability of over 40 km and have tormented the city of Ashqelon which sits just over 20 km from the Gaza Strip have been and are still provided directly from Iran. You three were kicked out of the United Nations conference on Human Rights for what UN human rights spokesperson Rupert Colville described as “unacceptable behavior.”

The UN seems to be quite confused and mistaken on what is unacceptable. What is unacceptable when discussing human rights is that Israeli civilians have been targeted for over eight years by this terrorizing missile fire.

What is unacceptable is that the President of the country which funds and supplies the over 10,000 missiles that have been fired at Israel is continually invited by the United Nations to promote the beliefs that we in southern Israel witness him carrying out.

What is unacceptable is an entire generation of Jewish youth like you growing up having 15 seconds to run for their lives in this daily reality, not knowing life other than with these missiles. What is unacceptable is that the UN did not invite anyone from cities in southern Israel like Sderot and Ashqelon to speak about the over eight years of human rights abuses involved in the firing of these missiles at innocent civilians.

This past week we honored Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, believing in the slogan “Never Again.” In Sderot I watched online as Ahmadinejad made his case to the world against this popular slogan. By depicting how this UN Human Rights Conference is a circus giving the floor to someone who works to wipe the Jewish people off any map, you three truly stood up and said “Never Again.”

I would be overjoyed if you would visit Sderot so you can see how more of your Jewish people live day-to-day with human rights abuses that the United Nations ignores. I thank you again and am sure if you were to visit Sderot more people here would love to personally thank you.

Never Again,

Jacob Shrybman