The 58th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights has been tarnished by Arab anti-Semitism. Exceeding their habitual exaggerated accusations against Israel, Arab delegates to the UN’s pre-eminent human rights forum have overstepped the boundary of acceptable political speech.
Analysis: The “new anti-Semitism” is the demonization of Israel in order to delegitimize the Jewish State. At the Durban Conference, this ploy took the form of “Zionism is racism.” At the Commission on Human Rights, the same phenomenon is occurring, but in a different guise.
During the first week of the Commission, Arab speakers have slandered and vilified Israel. The Syrian delegate accused Israel of “genocide” and “massacres of children.” The Palestinian delegate claimed that “the Israeli military occupation [is] the root cause” of the 11 September attacks. Perhaps most disturbing was the Algerian speech, which invoked Nazi terminology to describe Israeli treatment of Palestinians.
The Algerian representative called Israeli soldiers the “true disciples of Goebbels and Himmler” and asserted that “Kristallnacht repeats itself daily and Masadas are perpetrated against the ghettoized Palestinian people.”
Referring to the Nazi policy of arresting and executing local civilians whenever and wherever their soldiers were attacked, the Algerian representative said: “We must end this ‘night and fog’, nacht und nebel, inflicted on the Palestinian population by the inheritors of the Shoah.”
Refuting the inappropriate comparison in his statement before the Commission, Dr. Jakob Kellenberger, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross said:
“Does anyone really believe that the suffering caused by current conflicts around the globe surpasses the ravages of World War II and the atrocities that accompanied it?”
The Red Cross should not be the sole voice of protest against the trivialization of the Holocaust and the demonization of Israel.
Last week, the Commission on Human Rights condemned acts of racism around the world. By denouncing the anti-Semitism of their Arab colleagues, delegates could combat racism without even leaving the conference room. What remains to be seen is whether the political will exists.
