|
|
January 28, 2005/Shevat 18 5765, Vol. 57, No. 22
United Nations remembers Holocaust
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
UNITED NATIONS - For the first time in its history, the United Nations allowed a religious prayer on its premises. But even more surprising than the deviation from decorum was the prayer itself - El Malei Rachamim, a Jewish hymn for the dead - followed by the Israeli national anthem.
Sandwiched between a special General Assembly session marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the launch of an in-house exhibit commemorating that liberation, the prayer signaled the lengths to which the international body has gone this year to mark the Holocaust.
"The tragedy of the Jewish people was unique," U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said at the special session Jan. 24, becoming the first U.N. secretary-general to place the Holocaust in a Jewish context, according to Eve Epstein, vice president of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy.
"We must be on the watch for any revival of anti-Semitism and ready to act against the new forms of it that are happening today," Annan said.
Annan took a leading role in lobbying for the Jan. 24 session, which Israel had requested. He also overturned U.N. protocol to permit recitation of the prayer and Israel's national anthem; neither prayers nor anthems are permitted at the United Nations.
Israeli and Jewish officials lauded the session and hoped that it would prove to be a watershed in the world body's traditionally anti-Israel attitude.
"This is an historic day," said Arye Mekel, Israel's consul general in New York.
"What will happen next we will wait and see," he said. "I hope that this is a turning point."
The Jan. 24 session came amid increasing acts of anti-Semitism around the world and after failed attempts to get the United Nations to recognize the Jewish victims of the Holocaust or pass a stand-alone resolution condemning anti-Semitism.
It also came after the United Nations held its first major conference to address increasing global anti-Semitism in June.
At that time, Annan addressed a crowd composed mostly of Jews and vowed to fight anti-Semitism. His resolve was reinforced by the fact that the United Nations, like Israel, was formed out of the ashes of World War II and theHolocaust.
For some in attendance, the Jan. 24 General Assembly session demonstrates the progress the United Nations has made since June. The session won written support from 150 of the United Nation's 191 member states; the room was roughly half full for the session, and most countries appeared to be represented by at least one official.
The United Nations would not say how many Arab countries had expressed support for the session, but several Arab countries had given their written support, according to Israel's U.N. mission.
Still, some wonder whether a lasting connection will be made between the anti-Semitism of the past and what many consider a present-day manifestation in the form of intense anti-Zionism.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom used his speech to connect the issues, as did an Italian representative.
"The question is will Kofi Annan take the next step" and support a resolution when the victims of anti-Semitism are Israeli, said Anne Bayefsky, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and visiting professor at Touro and Metropolitan Colleges in New York.
Bayefsky wondered about the session's lasting impact, given the lack of any formal declaration or resolution. Still, she noted, "It's important that in the depths of the United Nations, people remember the Holocaust."
Jordan, the only Arab country to address the session, also aimed to connect modern-day Israel to the Holocaust commemoration - by insinuating that Israel mistreats the Palestinians.
"What sense can we make of this important commemoration when we allow through our inaction, year after year, one people to dominate another, to deny the latter many of its most basic rights, and so, with the passage of time, also degrade it as a people," said Jordan's U.N. ambassador, Prince Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the New York Times reported.
Addressing the special session, Holocaust survivor and Nobel prize laureate Elie Wiesel noted that the commemoration came late.
"Sixty years later you may ask, why so late?" Wiesel said. "It's not too late for today's children. It is for their sake alone that we bear witness."
|
|
