The
initiator of the recently launched campaign against Judy Shalom Nir Mozes as
Chairwoman of the Israeli branch of UNICEF, Ari Remez told the Jerusalem Post on
Monday that “she was using the international position for her owns personal
means.”
Shalom Nir Mozes decided to step down of her position at the UN’s
organization for children’s rights last week.
She had been nominated to
represent UNICEF in Israel two months ago and joined a sparkling list of
celebrities who have been ambassadors of the organization in the past years
including David Beckham, Sarah Jessica Parker, Shakira, Queen Rania of Jordan
and even Kate and William of the British royal family.
But during
Operation Pillar of Defense, Shalom Nir Mozes sparked controversy after posting
a few statuses on Facebook in support of the Israeli government taking action in
Gaza.
“There is nothing I value more than human life,” she wrote on
November 12th, “How is it possible to make peace with people whose children are
fed hatred towards Israel from the moment they are born? How is it possible to
make peace with people who have it in their DNA to hate us? I am willing to make
real peace at any price. The problem is that there is no partner. I wish I was
wrong.”
Another post followed two days later where she wrote: “I very
much hope that Bibi [PM Binyamin Netanyahu] will not surrender to the pressures of our enemies and
continue the operation until the last terrorist is murdered in
Gaza.”
After the statements, Remez, who is a theater director from Haifa,
along with a group of his friends, launched a social media campaign against
Shalom Nir Mozes as a representative of UNICEF.
“It didn’t seem
appropriate for the representative of such an organization to say these things,”
Remez told the Jerusalem Post on Monday, “Fulfilling an international position
in an international organization such as this one and saying that you care only
for your own children and two things that don’t work together.”
“You
cannot use children's rights as a fashion accessory and she was exploiting a
very just cause for her personal public relations needs,” he added.
Remez
and his group sent multiple letters of complaint to UNICEF in Israel as well as
to their headquarters in New York City, following which they received the
following answer: “We have noted the personal comments and views by Judy Shalom
Nir Mozes highlighted in a Facebook discussion thread and other media. These
views do not represent the views of UNICEF.”
In the response, the
organization also seemed to contradict the title that had been awarded to Shalom
Nir Mozes by noting that her position is of “Honorary Chair of the Annual
General Meeting” instead of the initial “Chairwoman.”
Remez addressed the
retraction: “UNICEF was put in a position where they felt they needed to
distance themselves from her.”
“The title of Chairwoman of UNICEF Israel
shouldn’t have been a pb for anyone, this is damage she is responsible for,” he
continued.
He added that he sees Shalom Nir Mozes’ case as representative
of an Israeli tendency not to see “the big picture” and “only see themselves as
victims.”
“I think Israelis should understand that if you want to be part
of an international community, you need to work with their rules.”
Judy
Shalom Nir Mozes, however, does not attribute her resignation to her public
comments on the military operation in Gaza.
“I never talked badly about
innocent citizens or children,” she made clear, “and I have no problem with
writing that murderers in Gaza should be murdered.”
As she explained to
the Post, the controversy around her statements only opened the way for her to
“see what goes on backstage,” which led her to resign.
She explained that
when she wanted to distribute toys for children in Sderot, the Israeli UNICEF
told her that she would need to receive official permission from the East
Jerusalem branch: “Gaza and East Jerusalem have their own UNICEF branches, I
don’t think it is normal that I have to go through them to do something for
Israeli children.”
After this occurrence, Shalom Nir Mozes also stated
that she realized that “all over the world, we say UNICEF Pakistan, UNICEF
America, UNICEF France, but here we don’t say UNICEF Israel. Here it is called
‘The Israeli fund for UNICEF’.”
“I don’t understand why UNICEF refuses to
consider Israel as a country like any other,” she continued, “I thought the UN
was an objective organization and that UNICEF is equally interested in kids all
over the world but I came to the conclusion that to them, Israeli kids are
second class citizens and I am very disappointed.”
Shalom Nir Mozes has
returned to direct the NGO Hom, which combats child poverty in Israel, on a
full-time basis. She has been involved with the organization for several years
now.
She explained that while she cares for all children of the world,
her priority and responsibility lies with Israeli kids.
“I believe my
mission on this earth is to dedicate myself to the kids and I continue to help
hungry children in Israel,” she stated.
“I feel that this was a missed
opportunity, a failure, and I don’t like to fail but this issue of Israel's
status needs to be addressed properly and I have already gotten in touch with
the Israeli representative to the UN to see what can be done about this,” she
continued.
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