Canadian Jewish Community Questions Nobel Peace Prize Selection

“Organizers of Durban debacle not worthy of recognition”

October 12, 2001

For Immediate Release

Toronto, October 12, 2001… B’nai Brith Canada has today expressed its concern and dismay at the selection of the United Nations and its Secretary General Kofi Annan as the recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. The UN has admitted its concealment of a videotape containing evidence in the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers, and the conduct of UN peacekeepers during the abduction has been called into question. The UN organized what can only be described as a whirlwind of hate and incitement at the World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa. Clearly, it has tarnished its image by presiding over a conference that was so poisoned by hateful rhetoric that Minister of Foreign Affairs John Manley and US Secretary of State Colin Powell refused to attend.

Rochelle Wilner, President of B’nai Brith Canada, was gravely disappointed. “The UN has earned recognition and goodwill in the past, opposing aggression in Korea, for example, or bringing peace to Namibia. But this year, the United Nations showed its worst deficiencies, weaknesses not seen since its impotent response to the Rwandan genocide in 1994. It is incomprehensible that an organization and an individual who created a forum for the proliferation of hate literature and anti-semitism in Durban only seven short weeks ago should be rewarded with this Prize.”

Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President, recalled, “One year ago today, flushed with the ‘legitimacy’ of a UN Security council resolution denouncing Israel’s response to an insurrection launched against it, the Palestinian Authority police and the people of Ramallah captured, tortured, murdered, and dismembered two Israeli reservists who had lost their way. In awarding the peace prize to the UN at this juncture, after another year of unbalanced anti-Israel resolutions that fail to reflect the violence unleashed against Israelis, the Nobel Committee rewards those who ignore and justify terror. This would be unconscionable at any time, but after September 11^th, it is simply unfathomable.”

Amos Sochaczevski, Chairman of B’nai Brith’s Institute For International Affairs, added, “It is hardly surprising that an organization that awarded a peace prize to Yasser Arafat, an individual who has chosen violence over negotiation, would bestow it on an organization which has obstructed the pursuit of justice in the kidnapping of three Israel soldiers last year. This award is a slap in the face of their families, and a further stain upon the honour of the Nobel Committee.”

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For further comment contact Rochelle Wilner at (416) 254 1010 or Frank Dimant at (416) 802 1057

B’nai Brith has been active in Canada since 1875 as the community’s senior human rights organization. In its 125 years of service, it has worked to respond with practical aid to many disaster situations around the world.