A message that was not meant to be long but concise; but as brief as it was it carried a documentation of what the United Nations has tried to exploit in covering the crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people.
Rima Khalaf head of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) has been able to present documented evidence on the Israeli occupation’s apartheid policy and entrenched discrimination against the Palestinians. And from her platform she was able to demonstrate that the United Nations which clothes itself in shape of “Human Rights Defenders” is providing a cover for Israel to continue its discriminatory actions and racist crimes.
What Rima has said about the contents of the ESCWA report emphasized that the discrimination system of the Israeli occupation is aimed to break up fragment and suppress the Palestinian people wherever they are. And that’s a crystal clear fact that nobody in Washington or Tel-Aviv wants to hear.
Rima didn’t want to be a “false witness” after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asked for the withdrawal of the report issued by ESCWA. She rather preferred to resign which was welcomed by Israel”
Rima Khalaf
In 1953 Rima Khalaf Al-Hunaidi was born to a Jordanian family. She grew up and studied in Amman and by the early 70’s she pursued her ambition at the American University of Beirut where she joined the Faculty of Economics and obtained her BA in 1976. At the same university she met the man who later became her husband the businessman Hany Al-Hunaidi.
Rima traveled to the US to continue her education where she studied a Master’s in Economics and a Ph.D. in System Science from Portland State University in the United States of America.
In December 2009 the Financial Times listed Rima among the top fifty people who shaped the decade.
In Jordan she served as Minister of Industry and Trade (1993–1995) then Minister of Planning (1995–1998) then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Planning (1999–2000).
In 2000 Khalaf started working with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as head of the Arab Bureau and the Assistant Secretary-General till 2006. During this period she prepared a series of reports on “Arab Human Development” with the assistance of a number of Arab experts. The first report was issued in 2002 which addressed the main shortcomings in the Arab world: freedom women empowerment and knowledge.
In 2003 the second report was issued under the title “Building a Society of Knowledge.” The third Report entitled “Towards Freedom in the Arab World” received the King Hussein Leadership Prize in 2004.
In 2007 she joined a new position adding to her prestigious career a new line on the international level. She worked in a number of international commissions including the High Level Commission on the Modernization of the World Bank Group Governance (2008–2009) and the International Advisory Group for Managing Global Insecurity (2007–2008). Khalaf also served as the Chairperson of the Advisory Board of the United Nations Democracy Fund (2006–2007). She was a visiting scholar at Harvard University during the spring semester of 2009-2010. A Jordanian writer called her a source of pride for Arab women.
A close associate who served with her at the Ministry of Planning and the International Organization described her as “Very professional in all matters related to the political economy very diligent and hard-working but she is keen that people who work with her would feel the maximum comfort.”
Strong Positions
Years ago the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor asked former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to expel Rima Khalaf for her “anti-Jewish attitudes.”
Khalaf said at the launch of the ESCWA report entitled “Arab Integration: A Way to a Human Revival” in Tunisia last February that “the forms of external discrimination and violations against Arab rights and dignity are numerous but the worst of it remains the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the Syrian Golan; an occupation that unabatedly continues in its flagrant violation of international resolutions and conventions.”
Khalaf received many awards and medals including the “Arab League Award for the most distinguished Arab woman in the field of international organizations”.
