On its best days the U.N. is an extravagant, inefficient and ineffective disgrace. But today its reputation and prestige hit its nadir. For the U.N. gave center stage at this human rights conference to one of the world's biggest human rights abusers, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, and predictably he used the occasion to rip the Holocaust and delegitimize the Jewish State:
“Following the World War Two, they [the West? Security Council members?] resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless, on the pretext of Jewish sufferings and the ambiguous and the dubious question of holocaust. [sic] They sent migrants from Europe, the United States and from other parts of the world to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine…”
This was immediately followed by the dramatic departure from the assembly hall of the representatives of those Western nations who failed to boycott the conference in the first place
(France, Belgium, the Czech Republic, the UK, etc.), and who apparently have their "redlines" even when it comes to bashing Israel. It remains to be seen whether they will return to the conference tomorrow, now that the Iranians are gone.
All this caused the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights to issue a statement expressing shock and disgust at Ahmadinejad's speech. Said Navi Pillay:"I utterly deplore the speech of the President of Iran delivered this afternoon at the Durban Review Conference against racism...I find this totally objectionable. Much of his speech was clearly beyond the scope of the Conference. It also clearly went against the long-standing UN position adopted by the General Assembly with respect to equating Zionism with racism."
This fake outrage is all rather confusing on a few levels. First, Israel-bashing is not beyond the scope of the Durban II conference, it is its heart and soul. Second, the U.N. General Assembly practically accused Israel of perpetrating war crimes during the Gaza defensive operation a few months ago, which certainly is akin to equating Zionism with racism. Finally, it was the U.N. who invited Ahmadinejad to speak to the conference on its opening day; if they wanted contrition they should have invited Barack Obama.
The U.N. is now completely discredited as a force for good in the world. In fact it can safely be said that the institution has become a safe haven for killers, thugs and despots who get from the U.N. legitimacy and a chance to strut their stuff in front of a world that should shun them instead. If there would be no U.N. there is a good chance that these two-bit
tinhorns wouldn't be given the time of day outside of their rotten little countries and failed states.
For a blow-by-blow of the Durban II conference, visit Roger L. Simon's blog and check out the video at PJTV. Note the heroic efforts of Alan Dershowitz, Shelby Steele and Jon Voight in Geneva to call attention to the freakshow that the U.N. has become.
You miss the point of The U.N. It is merely a tourist attraction that contributes 2.5 billion dollars a year to the city economy.
ReplyDeleteHere is what that liberal bastion, the NY Times had to say:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on Monday used the platform of a United Nations conference in Geneva on combating racism to disparage Israel as a “cruel and repressive racist regime,” prompting delegates from European nations to desert the hall and earning a rare harsh rebuke from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
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The Lede: Video of Protests During Ahmadinejad's Speech in Geneva (April 20, 2009)
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The seats of the Israeli, Italian and U.S. delegations remained empty at the opening of the U.N. conference on racism Monday.
As Mr. Ahmadinejad began to speak, two protesters wearing rainbow-hued clown wigs — their statement on the tenor of the proceedings — pelted him with red foam noses. Hustled out the door by security agents, they were soon followed by lines of stony-faced diplomats from the 23 European nations attending the conference. They walked out to the sound of some other delegates applauding Mr. Ahmadinejad.
The United States and more than a half-dozen other nations had already boycotted the gathering out of concern that it would focus on maligning Israel rather than on the global problems of discrimination, replaying the disputes that marked the first United Nations conference on combating racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001.
Years of negotiations intended to avoid just such a scenario failed, underscoring the uneasy gap that exists between the rest of the world and the West when it comes to certain issues, like whether Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians under occupation belongs at a forum on discrimination and xenophobia.
The speech and the reaction are also likely to complicate but not necessarily derail recent attempts between the West and Iran to forge new negotiations over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear development program.
Member states, who wrangled for months over the draft document for the Geneva conference, had ultimately removed controversial statements about Israel; about what constitutes defamation of religion, a position pushed by Muslim states; and about compensation for slavery.
But a reference in the draft document that endorsed the communiqué that emerged from the contentious Durban meeting — where the United States and Israel walked out — set off the boycott. Besides the United States, the countries staying away included Germany, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia. Canada and Israel announced months ago that they would not attend.
Mr. Ahmadinejad, who seems to take visible delight in his diatribes against Israel and denying events like the Holocaust because it so irks Iran’s opponents, brought the contention roaring back to the fore. He was the only head of state to attend.
“Following World War II they resorted to military aggressions to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said, grinning as he spoke, his remarks coincidentally falling on the day that Jewish communities mark the Holocaust. “And they sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine.”
Portraying Israel as a regional boogeyman has been a cornerstone of Iran’s 1979 revolution, although Mr. Ahmadinejad, facing a presidential election in June, is often criticized at home for spending too much time on Palestinian issues and not enough fixing the economic woes of Iranians.
The speech prompted the normally mild-mannered Mr. Ban and other top United Nations officials to voice uncommon criticism of the leader of a member state. “I have not experienced this kind of destructive proceedings in an assembly, in a conference, by any one member state,” Mr. Ban said.
“I deplore the use of this platform by the Iranian president to accuse, divide and even incite,” he said, urging members to “turn away from such a message in both form and substance.”
Mr. Ban also criticized members of nongovernmental organizations for heckling Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, criticized Mr. Ahmadinejad for “grandstanding” from a United Nations dais and said his performance should not be an excuse to derail the important topic of the conference.
She also made a not-so-subtle dig at Iran’s treatment of its own minorities, after noting that the president’s remarks were outside the scope of the conference. “This is what I would have expected the president of Iran to come and tell us: how he is addressing racial discrimination and intolerance in his country,” Ms. Pillay said.
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech prompted a chorus of condemnation. Israel recalled its ambassador to Switzerland to protest both the conference and meeting Sunday between the Swiss president, Hans-Rudolf Merz, and Mr. Ahmadinejad.
At the United Nations, Ambassador Alejandro D. Wolff, the deputy permanent representative for the United States, said the Iranians deserved better.
“It shows disregard for the organization to which he is speaking — the United Nations — and does a grave injustice to the Iranian nation and the Iranian people,” he said, suggesting that Iranian leaders show “much more measured, moderate, honest and constructive rhetoric when dealing with issues in the region.”
Not everyone at the conference was critical of the speech, which also wandered through topics like the economic collapse and Iraq and Afghanistan.
“If we actually believe in freedom of expression, then he has the right to say what he wants to say,” the Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Zamir Akram, told The Associated Press. “There were things in there that a lot of people in the Muslim world would be in agreement with, for example the situation in Palestine, in Iraq and in Afghanistan, even if they don’t agree with the way he said it.”
Those who supported the Obama administration’s attending the conference said their attitude was not altered by Mr. Ahmadinejad’s remarks. “It is unfortunate that the inappropriate and out-of-line remarks of Ahmadinejad would obscure the only international forum to address racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia,” Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat of California, said in a statement by the Congressional Black Caucus.
Nick Cumming-Bruce contributed reporting from Geneva, and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem.
That didn't cut and paste well.
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