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Resources updated between Monday, November 24, 2008 and Sunday, November 30, 2008

November 28, 2008

November 27, 2008

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Durban II Alert

European Union Capitulates to Islamic States on Durban II as
UN General Assembly Committee Renews Support for the Conference
and Calls for Additional Funding
&
The American Jewish Committee and the Conference of Presidents of
Major American Jewish Organizations Refuse to Demand a U.S. Boycott;
Israel's Plea for Immediate Boycott Support Ignored

NEW YORK - The UN General Assembly's Third Committee on Social and Humanitarian Affairs threw renewed support behind the Durban II Conference. Last year, the European Union voted against the Durban II resolution. This year they capitulated to the pressure of Islamic states and their allies.

The vote on the Resolution (orally amended, para. 55 deleted) was 130 votes in favor, 11 votes against and 35 abstentions. In 2007 the vote was 119 votes in favor, 45 against and 6 abstentions. The main change was the collapse of the EU.

The statement made by France on behalf of the EU, explaining why they abstained (instead of voting in favor), made no mention of any concern with the treatment of Israel in the draft outcome document now on the negotiating table. That document claims Israel is guilty of apartheid and genocide. It also manages to label only Israel as racist, while saying nothing about racism among the other 191 UN states.

The eleven states voting against were: Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Israel, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, United Kingdom and the United States. They alone were prepared to stand up to the intimidation and to recognize Durban II as an assault on human rights on a host of issues ranging from Israel to freedom of expression.

The resolution also calls for $3,754,800 to be spent from the 2008-09 budget on Durban II, in addition to the millions already spent.

The representative of Israel, Meirav Eilon Shahar urged other states to follow Israel's decision to boycott Durban II, as a matter of principle. In her words: "Foreign Minister [Livni] announced last week that Israel will not participate in another carnival of hatred and we similarly call on the international community not to legitimize the conference which seeks to legitimize intolerance and extremism under the banner of the fight against racism."

Other than Canada, Livni's plea for ending the evident demonization of Israel promoted with this powerful instrument, has fallen on deaf ears. In the United States, the American Jewish Committee and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations has refused to call for an immediate boycott. The EU's capitulation is a repudiation of their strategy of reliance on France to show serious leadership on Durban II while holding the EU Presidency. The failure of these organizations to support Israel's efforts to delegitimize this Israel-bashing forum, by issuing an unambiguous call for an immediate U.S. boycott, will most likely result in U.S. participation.

Watch the UN General Assembly President
and the only NGO representative selected by the UN to speak
declare Israel guilty of apartheid
and mount a call for boycotts, sanctions and divestment

Here is the video of UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann's unprecedented attack on a UN member state. It took place on November 24, 2008 at United Nations Headquarters in New York during the UN "International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People."



Watch video here.
"Apartheid Israel" Accusations by General Assembly President

November 24, 2008: UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, New York, UN Headquarters; UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann
Here is the only non-governmental representative hand-picked by the United Nations to "speak on behalf of civil society organizations" - Rev. Edwin Makue, General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. New York UN Headquarters, November 24, 2008. Translated into six languages and webcast around the world.



Watch video here.
"Apartheid Israel" Accusations by UN's Hand-picked NGO

November 24, 2008: UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, New York, UN Headquarters; Rev. Edwin Makue, General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches
The apartheid charge is 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, including the right to vote and stand for election with full and equal access to a fair and independent judiciary. By comparison, Arab states have been essentially rendered Judenrein since the creation of Israel. UN resolutions denounce Jews living in Arab-claimed territory as "Judaization." But no mention is ever made of "apartheid Palestine."

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

NEW YORK - The President of the UN General Assembly has launched an unprecedented attack on a UN member state from the Assembly podium. Going beyond even existing UN resolutions, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua accused Israel of apartheid and called for "a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions" against it. Reminiscent of a classic antisemitic slur, Brockmann (himself a Roman Catholic priest and one-time official of the World Council of Churches) also claimed our Palestinian "brothers and sisters are being crucified" by Israel.

His remarks were made on November 24, 2008 during the UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. This annual event marks the adoption of the General Assembly's partition resolution which called for the creation of a Jewish and an Arab state on November 29, 1947.

"Brockmann's assault is a gross abuse of the position of Assembly President," commented Anne Bayefsky, Editor of EYEontheUN. "He knows full well that his outrageous personal views will be translated into six languages and webcast around the world." Brockmann assumed the Presidency in September 2008, having been nominated by the Latin American and Caribbean regional group.

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."
"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." Brockmann said:
    "More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a non-violent means of pressuring South Africa...Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel..."
The adoption of the 1947 partition resolution, accepted by Jews and rejected by Arabs, is now bemoaned by the UN. Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan described Palestinian Solidarity Day as "a day of mourning and a day of grief." This year, as in years past, the UN used the occasion to fly only two flags, that of "Palestine" and that of the United Nations. Though the resolution was ostensibly the UN's first commitment to a two-state solution, today the flag of the member state of Israel is left out.

United Nations Trusteeship Council Chamber, New York, November 24, 2008

The Palestinian flag is on the left, the United Nations flag on the right. Speakers from left to right who voiced no difficulty with the omission of the flag of Israel:

Riyad Malki, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority; Jorge Urbina, Representative of the President of the Security Council; Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, President of the General Assembly; Paul Badji, Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations; H.M.G.S. Palihakkara, Chairman of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories; and the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs.

Vote on Draft resolution: 117 in favor - 5 against - 55 abstentions

Draft Resolution on the Report of the Human Rights Council Development

November 24, 2008

Vote on Revised draft resolution: 121 in favor - 0 against - 57 abstentions

Revised draft resolution on the Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Development

Vote on Amendment paragraph 1 c): 59 in favor - 77 against - 25 abstentions

Amendment to draft resolution A/C.3/63/L.35/Rev.1 Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Development

Vote on Amendment paragraphs 1 a) and b): 60 in favor - 78 against - 29 abstentions

Amendment to draft resolution A/C.3/63/L.35/Rev.1 Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Development

Vote on Draft Resolution: 85 in favor - 50 against - 42 abstentions

Revised Draft Resolution on Combating defamation of religions Development