Tuesday, November 25, 2008

UN General Assembly chief calls for Israel's destruction

UN General Assembly chief calls for Israel's destruction

This Saturday, November 29, will mark the 61st anniversary of the adoption of a UN resolution calling for the partition of the portion of the British mandate that is west of the Jordan River into a Jewish and a 'Palestinian' state. The Jews accepted the resolution; the Arabs rejected it. As a result, the State of Israel was born nearly six months later and was immediately attacked by five Arab armies.

The day is mourned by the United Nations each year as a day of solidarity with the 'Palestinian people.' This year, the festivities are starting early. On Monday, the chairman of the UN General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, called Israel an 'apartheid state' and called on UN member nations to destroy it the way the apartheid state of South Africa was destroyed 20 years ago (Hat Tip: Red Tulips).

Brockmann made the apartheid allegation twice in one day, once in the morning at the annual meeting of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and again in the General Assembly in the afternoon. In his words:

"I spoke this morning about apartheid and how Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories appear so similar to the apartheid of an earlier era, a continent away. I believe it is very important that we in the United Nations use this term. We must not be afraid to call something what it is. It is the United Nations, after all, that passed the International Convention against the Crime of Apartheid, making clear to all the world that such practices of official discrimination must be outlawed wherever they occur."

Bayefsky notes: "His remarks are especially offensive since the facts indicate the complete reverse. One-fifth of Israel's population is Arab with more democratic rights than in any Arab state. Arab states have been essentially rendered Judenrein since the creation of Israel. UN resolutions denounce Jews living in Arab-claimed territory as "Judaization," and no mention is ever made of "apartheid Palestine."""Brockmann's call," said Bayefsky, "was in effect, a call for the political destruction of Israel by means of the same strategy adopted against apartheid South Africa."

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