The UN and Anti-semitism

September 9, 2005
Anne Bayefsky 

The UN will consider a first-ever resolution on the Holocaust at the upcoming fall session of the General Assembly. The UN, and its primordial human rights instrument the1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, rose from the ashes of the Holocaust. Nevertheless, the General Assembly has never adopted a single resolution dedicated to anti-semitism in its history.

The good news: if this resolution is adopted the UN will have agreed that there was a Holocaust (the draft reads: Rejects any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or in part;).

The bad news: European support was only obtained after deleting any reference to anti-semitism.

The Europeans insisted on dropping the reference to anti-semitism in the draft resolution on the grounds that Arab and Islamic states would object. Suggested reference to Israel - the state whose very existence is inextricably connected with the survival and well-being of the remnants of the Jewish people who survived the Holocaust - was a non-starter.

The justifications range from: European support is crucial to any chance of adoption of the resolution, a U.S.-sponsored resolution including anti-semitism without European support would be doomed to failure, and failure to adopt some such resolution would be a serious blow for the actual protection of human rights.

...a classic example of how the UN divides democracies, distorts and diminishes American values, inflates the role of the European Union on the world stage regardless of principle, develops minimum common denominators or consensus by factoring in the demands of racists and despots, and passes off verbiage for real progress on serious violations of human rights.
 
– HYPERLINK http://www.eyeontheun.org/assets/attachments/documents/request_for_inclusion_of_holocaust_remembrance.doc \t _new Request for inclusion of Holocaust Remembrance in agenda list for 60th Session with draft resolution 

http://www.eyeontheun.org/assets/attachments/documents/draft_of_holocaust_remembrance_resolution_150_dpi.pdf \t _new Draft of Holocaust Remembrance Resolution