SWC: Paris Conference Celebrating 60th Year of Human Rights Declaration Sabotaged by 'Durban-Style' Incitement

A letter to UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Kiyo Akasaka, from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr ShimonSamuels, protested a workshop co-sponsored by an antisemitic NGO which was active at the 2001 Durban UN World Conference Against Racism (WCAR).

The workshop which was co-sponsored by the Arab Lawyers Union of Egypt, took place at the 61st UN Annual DPI/NGO Conference on "Reaffirming Human Rights for All: The UniversalDeclaration at 60" at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Samuels explained that the Wiesenthal Centre was present "to pay homage to the Declaration of Human Rights, crafted in the shadows of the Holocaust by the eminent Jewish jurist,René Cassin."

The letter continued, "In that spirit, we co-sponsored a workshop to address 'The Lessons of the Holocaust as an Early Warning System for Human Rights'."

Samuels claimed that "this serious level of discourse was dashed, however, by a last-minute entry workshop, entitled 'Human Rights and Armed Conflict: Principles and Practices’sponsored by Nord-Sud XXI which is associated with the self-contradictory Qaddafi Foundation for Human Rights of Libya. Among the co-sponsors figured the Arab Lawyers Union of Egyptwhich, in Durban in 2001, distributed a booklet of violently antisemitic cartoons and has, since then, continued its incitement to Jew-hatred."

The protest focussed on “The notorious Middle-East peace rejectionist, Ilan Pappe, who linked “the 60th anniversary of the Human Right Declaration with the 60th year of the Naqba(the self proclaimed Palestinian ‘catastrophe’) which was ‘the result of an Israeli policy of ‘ethnic cleansing’’…The so-called democratic Israel should become a pariah state …its‘peace camp’-Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, David Grossman- shield Israel from criticism…peace diplomacy sees the origin of Israeli war crimes as 1967…The NGO’s see it in Israeli 1948ethnic cleansing…the two-state solution is anachronistic…the one state solution will see the disappearance of Israel as a Zionist State”.

Questioned why he had ignored Palestinian terrorism, Pappe added “Israel has done worse than Hamas, which legitimately uses terrorist measures to achieve liberation”.

Ramsay Clark of NordSud added “Iran and Hamas are the ones who are demonised “

Mr. Under-Secretary General, Durban was just such a hatefest of demonization and delegitimisation, singling out only the State of Israel.

The letter further stated, "astonishingly, the approval by your organizers to accept this workshop, despite the known record of its cosponsor and speakers, violates the 'Rules ofEngagement' of your conference issued at its opening, which argues that "(B)igotry of any kind will not be tolerated (including hate literature or vulgarities aimed at demeaninganyone's race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, political opinion, social origin, property, disability, birth or any otherstatus)."

The Centre urged the Under-Secretary-General "to condemn this propaganda opportunity granted to the Arab Lawyers Union and to the abovementioned speakers, as an insult to theDeclaration of Human Rights itself, and to ensure that they be excluded from the forthcoming Durban II Conference, to be held at the United Nations, Geneva, next April.

"The participation in Geneva of such NGO cheerleaders for hate would inevitably guarantee a re-enactment of the racist hijacking of the first Durban UN World Conference AgainstRacism exactly seven years ago", concluded Samuels.

Photo Attachments:

- Workshop flyer and participants list

- Two posters indicating the purpose of the meeting

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33.609.77.01.58