A statement was delivered to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights by David Matas, B’nai Brith Canada’s Senior Honourary Legal Counsel. Representing Canada, he is part of the B’nai Brith International delegation to the 2004 session of the Commission, currently meeting in Geneva.
The Jewish community comes to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights unlike any other community. The Coordinating Board of Jewish Organizations comes to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights unlike any other non-governmental organization, outside the Jewish community.
Other non-governmental organizations come to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to complain of human rights violations that occur in one country or another, and ask the Commission to intervene to end the violation. The Commission is seen as a recourse, a remedy.
We come here to tell you that the problems the Jewish community faces world wide are caused, not just somewhere else, but right here. The Commission, far from providing a remedy, is a perpetrator. The enemy of the Jewish community is antisemitism, and antisemitism is fostered and propagated at the Commission.
The linkage is Israel. Outlandish, unbalanced attacks on Israel at the Commission are the norm. The effect and for many the purpose of these attacks is to criminalize the very existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state. Yet, the existence of Israel as a Jewish state is nothing the less than the tangible expression of the right to self determination of the Jewish people. The Commission provides a platform for unending speeches and resolutions criminalizing the State of Israel. The Commission sets aside a whole agenda item aimed at the condemnation of Israel - the only country to be so treated - under the tendentious title “Question of the Violation of Human Rights in the Occupied Arab Territories, including Palestine”. By doing all this, the Commission permits the criminalization of the Jewish people world wide as actual or perceived supporters of the State of Israel.
Yesterday the perceived criminality of the Jewish people as killers of Christ led to the Holocaust. Today the perceived criminality of the Jewish people as supporters of Israel threatens another Holocaust. Only technology prevents the suicide bombers directed against Israel and the Jewish people from killing many more victims. Suicidal killers as well as those who organize their deaths would willingly detonate a nuclear weapon rather than a few sticks of dynamite, if only they had the means.
The Jewish community world wide is today suffering from an upsurge of antisemitism we have not seen since the days preceding the Holocaust. That antisemitism, wherever Jews are found, is directly connected to anti-Zionism. And the headquarters of that anti-Zionism is right here, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Make no mistake about it. The exaggerated anti-Israel rhetoric at this Commission is not mere criticism about the behaviour of the State of Israel; it is directed against Israel’s existence. If all that were at issue were behaviour, then Israel would be treated like any other state. But obviously it is not. It is the first, the longest criticized, and the criticism is directed towards Israel efforts at self defense.
At the United Nations, every effort by Israel to defend itself has become illegitimate. Two years ago, the focus of UN criticism was the Israeli reoccupation of Jenin - the source, the planning centre of many of the suicide bombings that have plagued Israel; last year the UN General Assembly decided to target the Israeli security fence in the West Bank; this year the UN spotlight is on the Israeli killing of Sheik Yassin, founder and leader of the terrorist organisation Hamas.
Every year, the centre of United Nations attention is Israel. Why, we ask, is there a special session of the Commission to condemn the killing of Sheik Yassin, but no special session to condemn the activities of any other state? Why has the Commission never voted for a special session on the terrorism of Hamas directed against Israel?
We would ask the Commission to change its ways, to stop the demonization of Israel with its consequent demonization of the Jewish people world wide. But we realize, given the politics of the Commission, that this request is a mere hope, unlikely to be realized soon.
We have two more modest requests. We ask our anti-racist friends in the non-governmental community to understand the problems the overstated attacks at the United Nations on the State of Israel pose for the Jewish people world wide. At the World Conference against Racism, many anti-racist organizations were happy with the overall result, because their special issues received recognition. Only a few stood by the Jewish community when it was under attack. We ask the whole anti-racist community to join those few who already understand the nefarious impact of interminable United Nations based anti-Zionist attacks on the Jewish community world wide.
We also ask those states who are concerned with the effective functioning of human rights mechanisms at the United Nations to stand up to this anti-Israeli bullying. Ultimately, it is not just the Jewish people who suffer from the UN obsession with Israel. It is the whole UN human rights system. Abstentions, calls for peace in the Middle East, absence from voting, statements criticising both sides, are not enough. Only when states friendly to human rights are prepared not to tolerate the incessant harping on Israel, to say "Stop picking on Israel", will the UN human rights system be able to salvage its credibility. It is not just the Jewish people, but the whole global rights seeking community, who will benefit from that.
This statement was presented to the Commission on behalf of the Coordinating Board of Jewish Organizations under Agenda Item 8.
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