Monday, April 20, 2009

Walkout at UN conference-finally some backbone was demonstrated

British delegates joined a dramatic diplomatic walkout today when President Ahmadinejad of Iran told a major UN conference against racism that the state of Israel had been founded "on the pretext of Jewish suffering" during the Second World War. Around 20 delegates, including envoys from the UK, France, and Finland stood up and left the room at what was considered an anti-Semitic remark by the Iranian leader, who has repeatedly called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Nine Western countries including Israel and the United States had already decided to boycott the conference entirely because its draft declaration endorsed the conclusions of an anti-racism conference in South Africa eight years ago in which Islamic nations pushed through a text equating Zionism with racism.

Even before the walkout, Mr Ahmadinejad's speech had been interrupted by three protesters dressed as clowns who where quickly bundled from the vast conference room at the Palais des Nations by guards.

Later, other protesters shouted down from the balcony as the Iranian president carried on his address.

Earlier today, Israel recalled its ambassador to Switzerland in protest at a brief meeting yesterday between Mr Ahmadinejad and his Swiss counterpart, Hans-Rudolf Merz.

The conference opened as Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day - which falls this year on the 120th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth. This morning the Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told his Cabinet that while Israel commemorates the six million Jews slaughtered by the Nazis, "in Switzerland, the guest of honour is a racist and a Holocaust-denier who doesn’t conceal his intention to wipe Israel off the face of this earth".

An Israeli Government official said that Ilan Elgar, the ambassador in Berne, had been "recalled for consultations" after the start of the Durban II conference and the meeting between Mr Ahmadinejad and Mr Merz, who holds Switzerland's rotating presidency.

"This is not a break in relations, but an expression of Israel’s discontent for the lax Swiss attitude towards Iran," the official said.

The Obama administration announced at the weekend that it would boycott the meeting because its draft declaration makes reference to the text agreed in 2001 at the UN's first anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa. That document was agreed after the United States and Israel walked out over attempts to liken Zionism - the movement to establish a Jewish state in the Holy Land - to racism.

Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Poland joined the boycott.

Opening the conference this morning, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon urged the world to rally against the threat of intolerance.

"I fear that today’s economic crisis, if not handled properly, could evolve into a full-scale political crisis marked by social unrest, weakened governments and angry publics who have lost faith in their leaders and their own future," Mr Ban said.

"In such circumstances, the consequences for communities already victimised by prejudice or exclusion could be frightening."

The UN chief said that he regretted the absence of the United States and the other boycotting member states.

"There comes a time to reaffirm our faith in fundamental human rights and the dignity and worth of us all," Mr Ban said.

The major sticking points in the draft final declaration prepared for the current meeting concern its implied criticism of Israel and an attempt by Muslim governments to remove all criticism of Islam, Sharia law, the Prophet Muhammad and other tenets of their faith.

The American decision to boycott the meeting has been given extra weight by the fact that it was taken by the country's first black president.

Speaking in Trinidad yesterday after attending the Summit of the Americas, Mr Obama said that he would love to be "involved in a useful conference that addressed continuing issues of racism and discrimination around the globe" but wanted to avoid a reprise of the Durban conference during which "folks expressed antagonism toward Israel in ways that were oftentimes completely hypocritical and counterproductive".

Comment: I watched the entire speech on Aljazeera tv-it was on many of our channels. It was standard rhetoric-hopefully the West was watching. Our enemy, believe me Iran et. al. who did not walk out are our enemies. They know that even when something is a lie, if you say it over and over again, present it at many different venues including universities, UN conferences and other accepted locations, people will begin to think some of it is true and then ultimately, over enough time, they believe it all to be true. Our side defends itself once, twice and thinks we have made our point. Thus, we are loosing-capice?

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