Terrific address on the UN's appalling Jew-hatred by Anne Bayefsky --who went to the very belly of the beast to deliver it. She rammed home not merely the UN's moral bankruptcy but its betrayal of its own origins:

'The U.N. took root in the ashes of the Jewish people, and according to its charter was to flower on the strength of a commitment to tolerance and equality for all men and women and of nations large and small. Today, however, the U.N. provides a platform for those who cast the victims of the Nazis as the Nazi counterparts of the 21st century. The U.N. has become the leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism--intolerance and inequality against the Jewish people and its state.'

As she said, the UN has not merely turned a blind eye to the Jew-hatred of many of its own members, but itself presided over the carnival of Jew-hatred at the infamous Durban conference. She highlighted the UN's routine discrimination against and demonisation of Israel, including the attitude of Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

'In November 2003, Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a report on Israel's security fence, detailing the purported harm to Palestinians without describing one terrorist act against Israelis which preceded the fence's construction. Recently, the secretary-general strongly condemned Israel for destroying homes in southern Gaza without mentioning the arms-smuggling tunnels operating beneath them. When Israel successfully targeted Hamas terrorist Abdel Aziz Rantissi with no civilian casualties, the secretary-general denounced Israel for an "extrajudicial" killing. But when faced with the 2004 report of the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions detailing the murder of more than 3,000 Brazilian civilians shot at close range by police, Mr. Annan chose silence. That's discrimination.'

Not surprisingly, Annan chose not to address these points in his own lame and hypocritical condemnation of antisemitism

‘"When we seek justice for the Palestinians - as we must - let us firmly disavow anyone who tries to use that cause to incite hatred against Jews - in Israel or elsewhere," Mr Annan told the gathering, which included a wide spectrum of US Jewish groups and representatives of other religions. Mr Annan, whose speech was greeted with a standing ovation, said it was hard to believe, 60 years after the Holocaust, that anti-Semitism was rearing its head. "But it is clear we are witnessing an alarming resurgence of this phenomenon in new forms and manifestations," he said. "This time the world must not, cannot, be silent." '

Well in that case, Mr Annan, you’d better start by disavowing yourself and your odious organisation.

Posted by melanie at June 23, 2004