Archive for the 'Anti-Semitism' Category

Obama Rights Envoy Accuses UN Human Rights Council of Anti-Semitism

Published on May 8, 2012 in Anti-Semitism. 1 Comment

One of President Obama’s top human rights officials has accused the  UN Human Rights Council of anti-Semitism.

In a speech delivered yesterday before the superb Canadian Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism — before whom I had the pleasure to speak recently in Winnipeg — Hannah Rosenthal, the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, addressed the “increasing tendency of blurring the lines between opposition to the policies of the State of Israel and anti-Semitism.”

Citing Natan Sharansky’s 3-D test to identify where sharp but legitimate criticism crosses the line into anti-Semitism — namely, where there is demonization, delegitimization or double standards — Rosenthal provided examples of such anti-Semitism occurring at the United Nations: Continue reading ‘Obama Rights Envoy Accuses UN Human Rights Council of Anti-Semitism’

UN Watch salutes UN for high-level visit to Auschwitz to combat Holocaust denial

Published on February 2, 2011 in Anti-Semitism and Human Rights Council (UNHRC). 1 Comment Tags: .

Kudos to the UN for taking a determined stance against Holocaust denial and organizing this trip to Auschwitz. This is an instance where the UN’s moral authority could have a big impact. The UN News Service reports:

COMBATING HOLOCAUST DENIAL, UN LEADS DELEGATION TO AUSCHWITZ CAMP

Top United Nations officials led a visit by 150 eminent personalities and representatives of 40 Governments today to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest and most notorious of all the Nazi death camps, to combat denial of the Holocaust of millions of Jews and others during the Second World War.

“As the poet and philosopher George Santayana said, ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’,” said UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Irina Bokova, who led the visit with Bertrand Delanoë, Mayor of Paris, and the Aladdin Project, which seeks to counter all forms of denial and promote a rapprochement of cultures, particularly between Jews and Muslims, based on mutual respect. Continue reading ‘UN Watch salutes UN for high-level visit to Auschwitz to combat Holocaust denial’

UN Calls Fight Against Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial “Their Own”

Published on November 16, 2010 in Anti-Semitism and Antisemitism. 1 Comment

UNITED NATIONS

MESSAGE BY KIYO AKASAKA, UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC INFORMATION

TO THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ANTI-SEMITISM AND HOLOCAUST DENIAL

18-19 NOVEMBER 2010, DUBLIN

 

One cannot begin to understand the origins of the Holocaust without cknowledging the anti-Semitism that led to it. And, one cannot understand the dangers f anti-Semitism without learning the universal lessons of the Holocaust. Ignoring these facts increases the risk that they will be repeated.

Holocaust denial is anti-Semitism. It wounds the people who suffer the most – the survivors. And it extends this hurt to every Jewish person, as a heartless reminder of unspeakable cruelty and the ruthless attempt to eliminate every member of their families.

Anti-Semitism fuels hatred and hatred kills. Yet it persists.

It persists because we have not yet learned. We have not fully understood that discrimination against people anywhere hurts people everywhere. Minorities of all kinds continue to be persecuted and murdered. And too often, we have been indifferent.

The United Nations takes this indifference to heart. As Secretary-General Ban said, earlier this year, “the United Nations Outreach Programme on the Holocaust is working closely with survivors to ensure that their stories are heard and heeded as a warning of the consequences of anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination. Holocaust survivors will not be with us forever, but the legacy of their survival must live on. We must preserve their stories, through memorials, through education, most of all through robust efforts to prevent genocide and other grave crimes.”

The Programme also partners with teachers and civil society groups in furthering Holocaust education. These partnerships help to weaken Holocaust deniers, who in the face of the truth, can no longer claim ignorance of historical fact. The Programme’s “Discussion Papers Journal” provides a forum for scholars to examine the causes of the Holocaust and its relevance today. It encourages the international community to work together to help stop crimes against humanity, including genocide.

I congratulate the organizers of this important International Conference on Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial and encourage all of the scholars and experts here to continue to examine these issues, work to dispel myths, and fight discrimination.

Your cause is the United Nations’ own.

Syria to UN: Israel glorifies sucking Arab blood

Published on June 9, 2010 in Anti-Semitism and Syria. 2 Comments

NGO in UN Debate Slams Syrian Diplomat for Blood Libel, Calls on World Body to Condemn “Anti-Semitic” Remarks

Syria: Israeli anti-Arab hatred teaches children to sing “With my teeth I will rip your flesh, with my mouth I will suck your blood“

Geneva, June 9,  2010 - In a speech today to the United Nations (see full text below) the Geneva non-governmental human rights group UN Watch called on the world body to condemn “hateful and “anti-Semitic remarks” made yesterday by the Syrian delegate to the UN Human Rights Council.

In comments reported today in the the US and Canadian media, Syrian diplomat Rania Al Rifaiy had accused Israel of being a state “built on hatred, discrimination, oppression and a paranoid feeling of superiority.” (See transcript at bottom.)

As evidence, she purported to quote anti-Arab comments from a rabbi and a children’s song. “Let me quote a song,” said Al Rifaiy, “that a group of children on a school bus in Israel sing merrily as they go to school: `With my teeth I will rip your flesh, with my mouth I will suck your blood.”‘ Continue reading ‘Syria to UN: Israel glorifies sucking Arab blood’

UN Watch Exposes Syrian Blood Libel, Calls on World Body to Condemn Anti-Semitic Speech

Published on June 9, 2010 in Anti-Semitism, Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and Syria. 0 Comments

Geneva, June 8 – UN Watch is calling on the United Nations to condemn hateful and anti-Semitic remarks made today by the Syrian delegate to the UN Human Rights Council. 

“Let me quote a song,” said Syrian diplomat Rania Al Rifaiy, “that a group of children on a school bus in Israel sing merrily as they go to school: `With my teeth I will rip your flesh, with my mouth I will suck your blood.”‘

She also accused Israel of being a state “built on hatred, discrimination, oppression and a paranoid feeling of superiority.” (See details below.)
Continue reading ‘UN Watch Exposes Syrian Blood Libel, Calls on World Body to Condemn Anti-Semitic Speech’

Wall Street Journal: UN Watch takes on Islamist U.N. assault on free speech

Published on November 19, 2009 in "Defamation of Religion", Ad Hoc Ctte on Complementary Standards and Anti-Semitism. 0 Comments

Yesterday’s edition of the Wall Street Journal Asia (page 18) published the following two letters to the editor, by U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley and by UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. Both were in response to a Nov. 5th editorial entitled “Hillary vs. State,” which critiqued the U.S. co-sponsorship with Egypt of a UN resolution concerning freedom of speech. For an excellent in-depth summary of the issue, see The Dangerous Idea of Protecting Religions from “Defamation”  by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. *** Continue reading ‘Wall Street Journal: UN Watch takes on Islamist U.N. assault on free speech’

UN slams Switzerland for failing to investigate “pattern of anti-Semitic incidents”

Published on October 30, 2009 in Anti-Semitism and Switzerland. 0 Comments

The legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt is still alive in Geneva, within at least some UN human rights bodies.

Today the United Nations Human Rights Committee (an 18-member expert body that is not to be confused with the politicized Human Rights Council) issued the following concluding observations from its review of Switzerland:  Continue reading ‘UN slams Switzerland for failing to investigate “pattern of anti-Semitic incidents”’

Lantos widow on Robinson medal and Durban lessons

Published on August 12, 2009 in Anti-Semitism, High Commissioner of Human Rights, Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and Mary Robinson. 0 Comments

As reported by the JTA, Annette Lantos, widow of the late congressman Tom Lantos, is “deeply disappointed by the decision to honor former [U.N. Human Rights High] Commissioner [Mary] Robinson” but also feels that “this provides a good opportunity to reflect on the failures of Durban.” Her full statement:
Continue reading ‘Lantos widow on Robinson medal and Durban lessons’

Denis MacShane MP, Member of the UK Parliament, at Durban II Parallel Conference

Published on April 28, 2009 in Anti-Semitism and Durban 2009. 0 Comments

Durban 2 Conference: speech given at parallel NGO conference

Denis MacShane, MP, at Conference Against Racism, Discrimination and Persecution
Co-Organized by UN Watch and 20 other human rights NGOs, Geneva, 22 April 2009

Let us just imagine that this week the leader of a so-called Christian or northern caucasian state had taken the podium at a United Nations conference and made remarks about Muslims or about black people or about a democratically constituted rule of law nation such as those that were made by the President of Iran on Monday. There would have been an outcry. There would have been a mass walk out from Latin America, from Africa, from Asia. There would have been calls for sanctions and reform of the UN to prevent such a scandal happening again.

Continue reading ‘Denis MacShane MP, Member of the UK Parliament, at Durban II Parallel Conference’