SWITZERLAND: Crowd commemorates the Holocaust, on the sidelines of a discredited United Nations anti-racism summit in Geneva

Record ID: 574765

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: Crowd commemorates the Holocaust, on the sidelines of a discredited United Nations anti-racism summit in Geneva
  • Date: 21st April 2009
  • Summary: SONG BY FRENCH SINGER JEAN FERRAT BEING SUNG BY CHOIR
  • Embargoed: 6th May 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: International Relations,History
  • Reuters ID: LVABUMK1W2539QAEFI0EM6R90DAJ
  • Story Text: Close to 3000 Jewish community members gathered outside the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva on Monday (April 20) to commemorate the Holocaust, as a controversial anti-racism summit kicked-off at the U.N.
    Demonstrators prayed in the memory of Holocaust victims, just after Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Israel of establishing a "cruel and repressive racist regime" over Palestinians, in a speech he gave to the U.N.'s Durban II conference.
    Ahmadinejad triggered a walk-out by most Western countries' delegations from the conference that had already been badly undermined by a boycott by the United States and some of its major allies over concerns that it would be used as a platform for attacks against Israel.
    The boycott left Ahmadinejad as the only head of state in attendance, and his speech produced the kind of language that the Western countries and Israel had feared.
    Dozens of diplomats in the audience promptly got up and left the hall for the duration of the speech, while personalities including Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel commemorated the Holocaust Remembrance Day on the sidelines of the conference.

    "What really is needed now, is when all this mess will be over, when this masquerade is done, is to really rethink the U.N. institutions.
    Maybe states who are either suspected or proven to be guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, or even genocides, shouldn't be allowed to sit in the Human Rights Council," French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy told Reuters Television.
    Eight Western nations including the United States were avoiding the meeting altogether because of fears Israel would be singled out for criticism.
    However, a number of the delegations that remained behind applauded Ahmadinejad's speech.
    The United States and Israel had walked out of the first U.N. summit on racism, in South Africa in 2001 after Arab and Muslim states had likened Zionism to racism and focused criticism on Israel.
    Although the declaration prepared for the follow-up conference does not refer explicitly to Israel or the Middle East, its first paragraph "reaffirms" a text adopted at the 2001 meeting which includes six paragraphs on those sensitive issues.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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