EDUCATION WORLD: A United Nations "children's summit" became the focus of argument about the Middle East late last week when Israel's treatment of young Palestinians was raised and Israel's credentials were challenged.
Row at UN kids' conference
A draft General Assembly resolution, introduced by 22 nations, including South Africa, Afghanistan, Cuba and Arab states, said children under Israeli occupation "remain deprived of many basic rights".
In response, Israel's justice minister Meir Sheetrit used his General Assembly speech to accuse Palestinians of training youths to be suicide bombers.
It is not unusual for the Middle East conflict to arise at United Nations conferences but normally these arguments are in the context of a final declaration.
Richard Grenell, a spokesman for the US mission to the UN, said, "We are encouraging other nations to not allow this special session on children to be politicised and polarised."
Palestinian delegate Dr Emile Jarjou'i said, "Children are not interested in politics. They want to live, play, go to school, travel and explore their world. But they cannot! "In the last 19 months, Israeli military forces have indiscriminately killed hundreds of Palestinian children."
US visit to Muslim school.
The communist government of India's West Bengal state has said it was investigating a recent visit by US diplomats to an Islamic school. The US embassy's counsellor for public affairs and two officials of the US consulate in Calcutta visited the government-funded Calcutta Madrassa.
"The madrassa is a state government-funded institution. The US embassy should have informed the state government about the visit," Mohammad Salim, minister for minorities development and welfare, said. The government was concerned because of Washington's "past record of interfering in affairs of independent nations", he said.
The US consul-general in Calcutta, Christopher Sandrolini, said, "I reject talk of interference out of hand. The officials wanted to learn about the Muslim education system and about India in a wider sense. I'm surprised at the controversy." He said he was trying to clear up any misunderstanding.
