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Holocaust Remembrance Day is a UN Chutzpah

The 27th of January is the international UN International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

This event suddenly entered the world of global commemorations just a few years ago, half a century later than it should have.  It resulted from a UN resolution in 2004 (149 votes for and 42 votes against!) to provision a day to formally commemorate the Holocaust.  As part of its Statement of Commitment the UN wrote

“We recognise that humanity is still scarred by the belief that race, religion, disability or sexuality make some people’s lives worth less than others’. Genocide, antisemitism, racism, xenophobia and discrimination still continue. We have a shared responsibility to fight these evils.”

It is ironic that the UN produce this rhetoric when they are the leading instrument for destruction of Jewish nationalism. It is this body that aids and abets the modern enemies of Israel to advance an immoral and genocidal campaign against Israel.

The excerpt from the following article is just one small example of how the UN is culpable of rejecting the very values it espouses in its Statement of Commitment:

“Years of UN-driven anti-Semitism have clearly deadened the nerve endings of democracies. On November 29 and 30, 2010 the UN General Assembly sponsored its annual UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People followed by the usual anti- Israel agenda items.

From center stage in New York via Libya and Syria came the following: “Zionism, in reality, is the worst form of racism”; “The cancerous settlement in all the Palestinian territories”; “Israel shows and rears its ugly face”; “The word Israel has become synonymous with words such as aggression, killing, racism, terrorism.”

Numerous states voiced their opposition to “Judaization” – UN vocabulary for the crime of any Jew on any Arab territory. They bellowed about Israeli “butchering,” “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” “genocide,” “racism,” “brutality,” “crimes against humanity,” “torture,” “killing in cold blood” and “barbarism.” Guilt started “over 60 years ago” – that is, with Israel’s creation.

It would not have been difficult for listeners to discern that the fabrication of a cancerous Jewish state with its bloodthirsty ugly Jewish occupants was anti-Semitism. But not a single country moved. No UN gavel interrupted the speakers. Just the diplomatic niceties of thanking and bowing before Mr. President and Mr. Ambassador, and excellencies and distinguished delegates.

By the end of a year of double-standards, discrimination and hate-mongering 80 percent of all 2010 General Assembly resolutions criticizing specific countries for human rights violations were directed at the Jewish state. Only six of the remaining 191 UN member states faced human rights criticism at all, one of which was the US. And now half of the country-specific condemnatory resolutions and decisions ever adopted by the UN Human Rights Council target Israel.

THIS YEAR will be worse, as UN headquarters prepares to host the first summit of “heads of state and government” on racism in September. “Durban 3,” named after its notorious 2001 namesake that took place in Durban, South Africa, is aimed at “mobilizing political will…for the full and effective implementation of the Durban Declaration.” This declaration charges Israel with racism and names no other state.”

Unfortunately the National Council of Jewish Women of WA has arranged a civic event under the banner of the UN International Holocaust Remembrance Day, to which it encourages the Jewish community to attend.  The event is being hosted under the formal auspices of the local UN Association.  In linking the Jewish community to this body, the NCJWA bring shame to the entire Jewish community.  Whilst this is not a polite or politically correct viewpoint, I am confident that a large number of members of the Perth Jewish community feel this way.  There were strong opinions to this effect expressed within a discussion I participated in yesterday. 

Holocaust awareness within the general community is an important issue.   However to pursue this objective in the name of the UN, at the very time in history when the UN is discriminating against Jewish self determination is simply counterproductive.  Whether it is the funding of terrorists in Gaza, the inept level of supervision in southern Lebanon, the support of Palestinian Statehood without a commitment to coexistence, or the defining of Jewish settlement of Israel as “illegal”, the UN is supporting the existential destruction of Israel.

It is high time that Jewish communities in Australia and all around the world turn around to the UN and send a strong message, that their rhetoric and hypocrisy will not be tolerated.  If they genuinely want to learn the lesson of the Holocaust, and if they genuinely want to uphold their own published virtues then they need to act fairly and halt the delegitimisation of Israel.

The only thing the UN Association in WA should receive from the Jewish community is a letter of protest regarding the UN treatment of Israel.  Not because the local membership agree or support the stance of the UN regarding Israel (we hope that they do not), but because they affiliate their membership to a body that can in this day and age act in such a morally reprehensible manner.  

So long as the UN exhibits continued discrimination against the Jewish State, standing under the banner of the UN and commemorating Holocaust remembrance is an affront to the victims of the Shoah.

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