UN marks 40 years since voting 'Zionism is racism' (video)

UN marks 40 years since voting 'Zionism is racism'

UN chief Ban Ki-moon will attend ceremony to mark anniversary of 'anti-Semitic' resolution famously torn up by Chaim Herzog.

By Hillel Fendel
Israel National News
November 11, 2015

This week marks 40 years since the United Nations "resolved" that Zionism is a form of racism.

A commemorative ceremony with the participation of UN chief Ban Ki-moon is being held Wednesday, organized by the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN, the Yad Chaim Herzog Association, and the American Jewish Congress.

US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, family members of the late Chaim Herzog – Israel's ambassador to the UN when the resolution was passed – and other guests will also take part.

The anti-Israel vote was held in November 1975, a year after the PLO was first granted "observer status" in the UN General Assembly.

"A great evil has been loosed upon the world," said then-US Ambassador to the UN Daniel Moynihan in his speech during the debate in 1975. "The United States of America declares that it does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act."

"The abomination of anti-Semitism has been given the appearance of international sanction," Moynihan said. "The General Assembly today grants symbolic amnesty, and more, to the murderers of the six million European Jews. Evil enough in itself, but more ominous by far is the realization that now presses upon us: the realization that if there were no General Assembly, this could never have happened."

Despite this, 72 nations voted that Zionism is a form of racism, while 32 abstained; only 35 voted against. The sponsors of the bill numbered 25 countries, mainly Arab and Muslim, and the Soviet-bloc countries voted in favor; other supporters included Brazil, India and Mexico.

The resolution was rescinded 16 years later, at the behest of US President George H.W. Bush. Israel had made the retraction a condition for its consent to have a UN observer participate in the Madrid Peace Conference. Even then, 25 nations voted against retraction and 13 abstained; 111 voted in favor.

Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said this week, "Forty years ago, a dark chapter was written in the UN's history, and despite the retraction of the resolution, the hypocrisy and delegitimization against Israel still echo in the halls of this organization." . . . [More]