Host of UN Holocaust memorial skips event after U.S. Jews threaten walk-out 

By mailto:secretary@haaretz.co.il Shlomo Shamir 
Janury 27, 2009
Haaretz
Oriignal Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059161.html

UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann on Tuesday skipped the world body's ceremony marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, after American Jewish leaders threatened to demonstratively exit Tuesday's if he used the podium to attack Israel. 

D'Escoto, who has repeatedly made virulently anti-Israel statements, was to be the event's host by virtue of his official position and was scheduled give the opening speech. 

Last year, the General Assembly president likened Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza to the apartheid of an earlier era, and tried to ban Israel's envoy to the UN from speaking at a ceremony to mark 60 years since the institution adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

Professor Gabriela Shalev, Israel's ambassador to the UN, had also threatened to quit the ceremony should d'Escoto lash out at Israel. 

Several American Jewish groups, including the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, had earlier sought to have D'Escoto excluded from the ceremony, but to no avail. 

In her speech to the assembly, Shalev said the world has the responsibility not to remain silent to the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II. 

To remain silent and indifferent to the horrors of the Holocaust is probably the greatest sin of all, let alone denying it, she said. We have a responsibilty to act against the forces of anti-Semitism, bigotry and racism in any form. 

Some 1,600 guests were expected to attend the event, ranging from Holocaust survivors to UN ambassadors.