An Unreconstructed Anti-Semite, Alas
Old habits are simply too hard to change. Old enmities - sub-conscious thus well entrenched, they linger and inform the present. Attitudes in general may undergo gradual, incremental and ultimately liberating advances from suspicion and mistrust to a more open atmosphere, but individuals tend often to cling to the old and the familiar, unwilling to relinquish their personal antipathies.And so, it would appear, it is with Canada's own mistress of jurisprudence of high repute. Now in her third year as the High Commissioner of Human Rights in the United Nations, she continues to shield herself from the enlightening atmosphere of acceptance that Jews in general and Israel in particular present no more and no less than representatives of the human community, deserving of respect and friendship.
Louise Arbour clings to her apprehension of Jews as unfavoured outsiders, her now-instinctive aversion to the indelible vision of all that is unpalatable in a human being packaged in Jewishness. Her stony bias against Jews and Israel mark her own failings as a well balanced human being. In her respected position of authority within the United Nations as an arbiter of human rights, she has chosen steadfastly to neglect her duty in condemning outright instances of anti-Semitism.
Tasked with the responsibility of co-ordinating the world body's activities in the areas of human rights across the globe, she uses her authority to bring public attention to instances of human rights abuse. Except, signally, when instances of egregious anti-Semitic rhetoric or behaviours arise, and then they are handily ignored. Not once has she uttered a word of condemnation against the bellicose and existential threats issuing from Iran, even from within the precincts of the UN, against Israel.
In contrast to both the past and the current United Nations Secretary Generals. Holocaust denial, threats against Israel, incidents of racial prejudice directed against Jews are all denounced by others, but never from the mouth of the world's appointed moral authority within the United Nations. In keeping, unfortunately, with the hateful expressions against Israel brought forward by Arab and Muslim nations in the General Assembly.
Tellingly, other United Nations agencies, such as its Department of Public Information, its Holocaust Outreach Program, seek to educate and inform its member-nations and their representatives about matters such as the occurrence of the Holocaust and the world events which led to that world-damning event. Just recently representatives from Ankara, Baku, Bangkok, Bucharest, Kiev, Manila, Minsk, Moscow, Pretoria, Tbilisi, Tokyo and Yerevan took part in a Yad Vashem-sponsored seminar.
In his comments on behalf of the UN, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Kiyo Akasaka assured that "The United Nations must never forget that it was founded as a reaction to the brutality of the Second World War, or that the horrors of the Holocaust helped to shape its mission. That response is enshrined in our Charter, and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We are grateful to Yad Vashem for this opportunity to examine together the motives that led to the human tragedy of the Holocaust, and to understand how and why its lessons are so important today."
Anti-Semitism was its cradle, the crucible of the Holocaust. Feeding a populace vile propaganda that characterizes an ethnic-religious-traditional group of people as sub-human, unworthy of human consideration, and expendable, succeeds over time in ensuring that the targeted group will have few champions and they become faceless victims whose fate is of little interest to the larger, unaffected group of humans who surround them.
Created in 2006 by a General Assembly resolution, the UN's Holocaust Outreach Program encourages UN member states to develop educational curricula on the Holocaust. To ensure civil society has an understanding and awareness of the development of racial hatred and the horrors on the world stage that practises and outcomes can produce.
UN resolution 60/7 also declared January 27 as International Day of Commemoration in memory of victims of the Holocaust, rejecting denial of the Holocaust as an historical event.
One would logically assume that the UN's High Commissioner of Human Rights would be obliged to speak out in firm rejection of Holocaust denial when such outrages issue from the lips of those who address the General Assembly, such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his ilk, but silence on the issue is all that has greeted expectant observers.
Perhaps it is past time that Madam Arbour undertook to visit Yad Vashem, and to receive gentle instruction on the realities of genocide. There she might be reminded of individual as well as collective personality in the prevention of further such world-shattering events.
Labels: Anti-Semitism
posted by Pieface @ Friday, November 02, 2007
<< Home