John Ging (born 1965) is an Irish national and former officer in the Irish Army who served as head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip from 2006 to 2011. As head of the United Nations’ 10,000 employee operation there, he became a sought-after commentator by the media and an information source for foreign governments during Israel’s 2008-2009 offensive in Gaza.Here’s part of his current UN bio:
John Ging, an Irish national, was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as Director of the Operational Division at OCHA in February 2011. He oversees the day-to-day management of all OCHA field operations worldwide and on behalf of the Emergency Relief Coordinator, and is her day-to-day focal point for supporting Humanitarian Coordinators. Mr. Ging is also the lead adviser to the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs on operational decision-making.
'England have defended Moeen Ali for wearing wristbands showing support for Gaza during the third Test with India.The Worcestershire batsman, 27, wore bands saying "Free Palestine" and "Save Gaza" on the second day in Southampton.
International Cricket Council regulations state players should not wear messages relating to "political, religious or racial activities".The ICC is investigating but the England and Wales Cricket Board said: "Moeen has done nothing wrong."According to Rule 19F of the ICC Clothing and Equipment Rules and Regulations, players should not convey messages with their clothing unless approved in advance by the player's official board, but approval would not be granted for political messages.An ICC spokesman confirmed: "We're investigating and will report in due course."'
'(Hamas) has emphatically limited reporters' access to aspects of Hamas operations that would reflect to its detriment. One example of this relates to Gaza's Shifa hospital, the official added. "We know that downstairs there is a Hamas command and control center and that Hamas leaders are hiding there. No reporter is allowed to go anywhere downstairs. They're only allowed to work upstairs to take pictures of casualties, the pictures that Hamas wants them to take."Shifa has indeed "become a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices," the Washington Post reported on July 15. The Wall Street Journal's Middle East correspondent, Nick Casey, wrote on Twitter that Hamas uses Shifa "as a safe place to see media," but removed the post afterwards.Last week, a correspondent for the local Ouest France daily newspaper told Libération, another French daily, about how he was interrogated and intimidated by Hamas officials in what appeared to be their office in Shifa."A few meters from the emergency room, where the injured from the bombings kept on coming in, in the outpatient ward, [the reporter] was received in 'a small section of the hospital used as an office' by a group of young combatants,'" the article read. "Surprisingly, they were all well-dressed, 'in civilian clothing, with a gun under the shirt, and some had walkie-talkies.'" He was ordered to empty his pockets, to remove his shoes and belt, then was taken to a hospital room that appeared to serve the men as their command office, the reporter recalled'
'If you seek to promulgate the legacy of early Islamic colonialists who raped and pillaged the Middle East, subjugated the indigenous peoples living in the region, and foisted upon them a life of persecution and degradation—you do not get to claim the title of "Freedom Fighter."If you support a racist doctrine of Arab supremacism and wish (as a corollary of that doctrine) to destroy the Jewish state, you do not get to claim that the prejudices you peddle are forms of "legitimate resistance"
'HRW, instead of condemning what are clearly cases of human shielding under international law and under their own definitions, is going out of its way to excuse Hamas, downplay their war crimes - and endanger Gazans. In this case we see that twice HRW changed their definition deliberately to excuse first Hezbollah and then Hamas - moving the goalposts as each terror group gets more depraved.What kind of a "human rights" group tries so hard to excuse violations of human rights?(NGO Monitor has documented many other examples of HRW's fluid definitions of "human shielding" to defend terrorists from the charge when Israel is involved.)'
'... the massive population displacements in Europe at the end of the Second World War are forever, but those in Palestine a mere three years later must be corrected and reversed. On the Continent, losing wars comes with a territorial price: The Germans aren't going to be back in Danzig any time soon. But, in the Middle East, no matter how often the Arabs attack Israel and lose, their claims to their lost territory manage to be both inviolable but endlessly transferable.'
'... the Palestinian journalist was summoned by the security services of Hamas on Sunday. "I received a call from a private number. They summoned me to Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza City center, " explains Radjaa. He carried with him his two phones, his press card and a small camera.A few meters from the emergency room where the injured from bombings are constantly flowing, in the outpatient department, he was received in "a small section of the hospital used as administration" by a band of young fighters. They were all well dressed, which surprised Radjaa, "in civilian clothing with a gun under one's shirt and some had walkie-talkies " . He was ordered to empty his pockets, removing his shoes and his belt then was taken to a hospital room "which served that day as the command office of three people." '
'Without exception, the Palestinian leadership has sabotaged every single offer that a mediator has brought to the table. But even now—and most bizarrely of all—the world lays the blame inequitably on Israel.'
'Hamas criticizes that "Israel massacres civilians". On the other hand, it tries to use evacuating civilians and journalists by stopping them and turning them into "human shields", counteracting thoroughly with its guerrilla tactics…'
'Mosques and madrassas should be careful what they teach young kidsFilmmaker Shafiur Rahman'
'... new regulation proposed by Britain will have attached to every IDF ground battalion at least four anti-Israel journalists, with a stipulation that two of those four be provided by the British Broadcasting Corporation. "The BBC remains one of the world's leading sources of news and analysis, but the organization does not have enough constant assignments for all the anti-Israel journalists on its payroll," said British envoy Sir Huffington Post. "This provision will go a long way to solving both problems. It's a win-win situation."'
'Malaysian airliner with 295 people on board has crashed in Ukraine near the border with Russia, on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, reports say.'
'... Our borders are sold, our armed forces made toothless, terrorist imams recruit in our jails and our easy-going largesse with tax money is abused by hordes of freeloaders we are powerless to deny. The hospital ship of state is holed below the waterline yet the stewards still ply the takers with all-inclusive drink and drugs while the captain and officers squabble over the course. Meanwhile, at each port of call, the sober and self-reliant slip away quietly, their empty bunks taken up by ever more stowaways. Cruise Ship Britain; doomed to roam the polluted seas until every paying passenger has gone overboard and taken the lifeboats with them.'
'... two thirds of non-white voters supported Labour, which received the backing of just one in five white British voters.The analysis suggests that the migration of ethnic minority voters to the capital's inner suburbs is behind recent Labour victories there. '
"The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,' except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews."
'Over the past week the hashtag #GazaUnderAttack has been used hundreds of thousands of times, often to distribute pictures claiming to show the effects the airstrikes.
Some of the images are of the current situation in Gaza, but a #BBCtrending analysis has found that some date as far back as 2009 and others are from conflicts in Syria and Iraq.'
'(John) Lloyd (the series Producer) said that he and the team had been making a "pathetically mild" joke about how they "had to drum up an audience for a terrible Saturday show" - and that it was "awful" to look back on the video in the wake of Harris' sex abuse convictions.'
"We have some bad news, I'm afraid to report, we're here every day..."
'A South African Airways pilot stripped to his underwear in front of crew and passengers in protest over rigorous airport searches.Captain W Van Ginkel, who was about to board the airline's Flight SA 025 jet to fly to Johannesburg, reportedly removed all his clothes except his pants at Harare International Airport, Zimbabwe '
'The Middle East conflict is framed as one of the most complex problems in the world. But, in reality, it's very simple. Israelis want to live in peace and are willing to accept a neighboring Palestinian state. And most Palestinians do not want Israel to exist. As Dennis Prager explains, this is really all you need to know. In 5 minutes, understand how Israel was founded, and how, since that auspicious day in 1948, its neighbors have tried to destroy it, again and again. '
'We've got son of Blair, son of Straw, son of Prescott, son of Dromey. When you take out the Red Princes, you'll find that 80% of their candidates are union sponsored. They bought the candidates, they bought the policies, they bought the leader, we must never let them near the country."'