Monday, July 16, 2007

The Longest Hatred 8

One would hope that the United Nations, an organisation founded in the ashes of the Holocaust, would take a lead in combatting this longest of hatreds. Sadly, the reality has been very different: the UN has more often that not signally failed not only Israel but also the Jewish people.

Some particular "lowlights":

- the UN's notorious 1975 "Zionism is racism" resolution, which was inspired in part by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, three years after he had telegrammed the UN Secretary General applauding the Holocaust. The "Zionism is racism" motion was rescinded in 1991 after intense US pressure; unbelievably, some Christian anti-Zionists write approvingly of the original resolution and believe that the decision to rescind it was flawed!

- in 2000, the UN's World Conference against Racism turned into a racist conference against Jews. Israel and Israeli NGOs had previously been excluded from a regional pre-conference; at the Durban conference itself, copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and literature glorifying Adolph Hitler were made freely available; Syria and Iran issued statements denying the Holocaust; a statement against antisemitism made by Jewish groups was struck out (a fate which befell no other statement issued by any other group): here and here

- the enduring double standard by which Israel alone has been singled out for condemnation while far worse human rights violations perpetrated by other nations are ignored. When challenged about this double standard, the UN attempts to bury the evidence: here (and, more generally, here)

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