United Nations is right to postpone conference on antisemitism if it does not intend to adopt International Definition of Antisemitism
A United Nations conference on antisemitism scheduled for next week has been postponed.Envoys to UN in Geneva visit Israel, get ‘different perspective’
The conference, due to take place on 20th and 21st June in Spain, was organised to unveil the United Nations Action Plan on Monitoring Antisemitism and Enhancing a System-wide Response.
However, in a letter dated 9th June and sent to conference participants, Miguel Moratinos, High Representative for the UN Alliance of Civilisations, who is leading the UN’s work on antisemitism, said: “After very careful consideration and aiming to ensure the action plan is inclusive and benefits from the inputs of all stakeholders, I would like to allow more time for further work and finalisation of the plan during summer 2023.”
The meeting is postponed until September, with no date set.
The postponement came amid concerns on the part of the Israeli mission to the UN and Jewish organisations relating to the content of the draft plan.
In particular, the draft plan, three years in the making, reportedly gives equal space and weight to the International Definition of Antisemitism, Jerusalem Declaration and the Nexus Document. This is despite the fact that, whereas the Definition has the support of Jewish communities around the world and the state of Israel and has been adopted by numerous national governments, multinational organisations and provincial and local governments and public bodies around the world, the Jerusalem Declaration is a wrecking document intended to undermine the globally-recognised Definition, and the Nexus Document is a fringe alternative definition which also exists solely and explicitly to undermine the Definition and create space for certain far-left expressions of antisemitism.
For this reason, Campaign Against Antisemitism and swaths of Jewish organisations wrote to the UN urging the adoption of the Definition alone.
The draft plan references the Definition and the two fringe alternatives, and urges UN member states to formulate an acceptable definition, despite the fact that the Definition was drafted over many years and has already been adopted by numerous member states on various continents, and enjoys the support of Jewish communities across the world.
It is understood that Mr Moratinos did not consult with the Israeli mission to the UN or the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and did not even invite the Israeli ambassador to the UN to the conference.
The first-ever delegation of senior legal advisers and human-rights experts from permanent missions to the United Nations in Geneva visited Israel last week to get firsthand insights into the country’s institutions, legal framework, population and civil society sector.
The delegation included representatives of the permanent missions of the United States, Italy, Greece, Uruguay, Paraguay, Kenya and Israel.
They were hosted by the Center for Jewish Impact, the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
“The United Nations is a bubble, too often detached from the reality on the ground. Having firsthand experience of Israel is the ideal way to understand the diversity, the complexity, and the beauty of our country,” said Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar, permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations and international organizations in Geneva.
“I am convinced that the diplomats who joined this tour will see Israel from a whole different perspective in the future,” she added.
The representatives were given a geopolitical overview of Israel’s security challenges; learned about its institutions and legal system; met with legal experts; and held a roundtable discussion with Israeli civil society leaders.
They visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum and attended a seminar on antisemitism to learn about historical and contemporary manifestations of the world’s oldest hate, particularly from a legal perspective.
“Despite the United Nations’ challenging environment, underscored by the latest Commission of Inquiry report, these diplomats witnessed a side of Israel that inspires hope and showcases the power of resilience,” said Robert Singer, chairman of the Center for Jewish Impact.
“We showed them Israel that they might otherwise never see, and I think it was an impactful experience for them, which we hope they will use in their professional work,” he said.
Congressman Urges DOJ Probe of Tehran-Endorsed 'Mapping Project'
Rep. Jack Bergman has raised national security alarm bells by calling on the Justice Department to investigate ongoing efforts of an anti-American website that is allegedly promoted by Iran's regime and incites assassination attacks against U.S. law enforcement personnel and American Jews.BDS movement co-founder to speak at Toronto ‘anti-racism’ conference
Bergman, R-Mich., sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this month. The letter, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, called for immediate action.
He wrote, "To protect Americans' national security interests and religious freedoms, the Justice Department should commission a full investigation into the origins and funding of the Mapping Project, including possible collaboration with the Islamic Republic."
Fox News Digital has reported extensively on the Mapping Project in 2022, when it was first revealed, and in March with respect to the role of the Iranian regime in supporting the terrorism aims of the Mapping Project.
Bergman stated in his letter to Garland, "I write to express my concern that the Islamic Republic of Iran is covertly supporting a purported social justice movement in the United States known as 'the Mapping Project' as part of a sophisticated campaign to sew social discord and undermine public faith in American institutions.
"Launched in 2022, the Mapping Project maintains a website with an interactive map that pinpoints the precise geographic locations of more than 500 civil society, government, national security, religious, and community organizations in the state of Massachusetts that it claims should be 'dismantled' for advancing perceived 'harms' in the United States and in Israel."
He noted, "Among the entities whose precise locations are shared on the Mapping Project website are some 271 police stations – law enforcement is a frequent target for the Mapping Project, which publicly called for the abolition of the Boston Police Department – nine U.S. military bases and installations, and several Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Secret Service offices. Nearly 300 of the approximately 500 organizations mapped by the Mapping Project contribute to the nation's national security."
A Canadian group called Independent Jewish Voices is hosting an “Anti-Racist Solidarity and the Fight for Justice in Palestine” conference in Toronto from June 16-17. One of the slated speakers is Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the anti-Israel BDS movement.
By “platforming speakers like Omar Barghouti,” the group “is making clear that it supports a one-state framework, which would mean the destruction of the Jewish state, which Barghouti unabashedly sets out as his objective,” said Shimon Koffler Fogel, president and CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. “It demonstrates in the clearest of ways that the group has no interest in promoting peace and universal rights.”
Fogel added that IJV should be seen as only representative of “the fringe minority who actually affiliate with it” and not of Canadian Jewry. “Those who do accord this group any credibility must be understood as doing so to justify their own anti-Israel political agendas,” he said.
Bargouti has said: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sell-out Palestinian, would ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
Another speaker at the event, Shatha Ayman, has supported the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which Canada lists as a terrorist entity.
German Public Broadcasting political chief journalist Georg Restle calls dead Palestinian Terrorists martyrs and claims that German Public Broadcasting doesn't report about the children of the Palestinian martyrs out of racist & capitalist reasons. https://t.co/YhefEi820T
— Michael Weingardt (@Michael_Wgd) June 14, 2023