Pro-Palestinian U.N. Meeting Riles Jewish Groups
BY BENNY AVNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun
July 12, 2005

UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. conference opening today in Paris is angering Jewish organizations that say Turtle Bay has yet to address its one-sided anti-Israeli agenda - which U.N. officials have acknowledged - despite claims by the world body that reform is underway.
The Anti-Defamation League yesterday demanded that Secretary-General Annan reconsider his support for the gathering, despite a change in the title of the two-day, pro-Palestinian-Arab event, scheduled for today and tomorrow. The meeting emphasized support for Palestinian people in previous years; it now calls for Middle East peace.
The conference's agenda has not changed from a biased approach to the conflict, the ADL's national director, Abraham H. Foxman, said in a letter sent yesterday to Mr. Annan. As in years past, in only addressing the concerns of the Palestinian people, this conference focuses on a one-sided, anti-Israel approach to the situation, complete with anachronistic grievances and debates, while ignoring current realities on the ground.
Others noted that in Mr. Annan's ambitious, recently introduced reform plan, published in a volume called In Larger Freedom, the secretary-general neglected to address such pro-Palestinian-Arab biases. On other occasions, he has promised to urge change that would give Israel increased support at the United Nations. We need to correct a long-standing anomaly that kept Israel from participating fully and equally in the work of the organization, Mr. Annan said last March at a Jerusalem dinner hosted by Israel's President Katzav, for the opening of the new Yad Vashem holocaust museum. Yet events like today's Paris seminar continue unabated, not even mentioned in Mr. Annan's reform plan, pro-Israel groups say.
What makes this Paris event absurd is that, as always, it is a wasteful propaganda exercise, but it also comes now, at the heels of U.N. reform, and as there is movement in the Arab-Israeli conflict, an attorney who is active on Jewish issues and closely follows the United Nations, Harry Wall, said.
The conference is rooted in General Assembly resolutions that date to the 1970s, a particularly anti-Israeli era at the United Nations. Despite the repeal, under American pressure, of the resolution known as Zionism Is Racism, the pro-Palestinian agenda remained. More than 20 resolutions annually address Palestinian-Arabs and their treatment by Israel, and there are several organs dedicated to their grievances.
One such organ, the 22-member Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, headed by Senegal, is the organizer of the two-day Paris conference, which will take place at the headquarters of one of the most prestigious U.N. agencies, Unesco. Speakers include Palestinian-Arab officials, far-left Israeli representatives, and pro-Arab American activists.
U.N. officials are aware of the criticism. These forums should be used to advance constructive dialogue and not pursue one-sided denunciations, the undersecretary general for public information, Shashi Tharoor, told The New York Sun, in reference to General Assembly-mandated seminars and events.
Answering Mr. Foxman's criticism that the name change has not transformed the content of today's conference, Mr. Tharoor said that when one General Assembly-mandated seminar his department has organized changed its name, the agenda began to shift as well. He complained that the Israeli government has actively discouraged Israelis from participating, making it difficult for the United Nations to depict Israeli politics in a balanced manner.
Israel's ambassador, Dan Gillerman, told the Sun yesterday that, with America's help, his country hopes to put the issue on the agenda of a scheduled September Turtle Bay summit of heads of state, which is intended to tackle U.N. reform. I hope this could be addressed, he told the Sun. A congressional-mandated report on U.N. reform, prepared by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Senate majority leader George Mitchell, dedicated a long chapter to anti-Israel bias, and a recent bipartisan House resolution was dedicated to it.
While In Larger Freedom made no mention of the anti-Israel agenda, Mr. Annan addressed other hotly debated issues in it, among them defining terrorism, replacing the much-maligned Human Rights Commission with a smaller and more accountable Human Rights Council, and modernizing the U.N. Security Council.
Several proposals for council expansion were debated for the first time at the General Assembly yesterday, exposing sharp divisions. The assembly is more divided than before, the Chinese ambassador, Wang Guangya, said.
One powerful group, headed by Japan, India, Germany, and Brazil and known collectively as the G-4, yesterday urged an expansion of the council to 25 members from 15. Under this proposal, the G-4 would be added to the five current permanent members: America, Russia, China, Britain, and France. The question of veto rights for the new permanent members would be deferred for at least 15 years.
Another voting bloc, which includes Pakistan and Mexico, hopes to block India and Brazil from becoming permanent members by opposing any major changes. A third group, the African Union, proposes seven seats for the continent in a 26-member council, including two permanent seats with immediate veto rights. America supports permanent status for Japan, but China vehemently opposes it.