On January 22, the UN held its first-ever session devoted exclusively to the subject of anti-Semitism, a topic normally forced off the agenda by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Speakers—including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon—unsurprisingly took the opportunity to make clear that criticism of Israel should never be confused with anti-Semitism. Anne Bayefsky examines this rhetoric, especially “the ignorant and twisted claim that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rightly or wrongly, exacerbates anti-Semitism”:
At the root of this assertion is the idea that the victims of anti-Semitism have a responsibility to ameliorate the pathology of their enemies.
The fact is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rooted in the rejection of a Jewish state and the denial of Jewish self-determination. It is itself quintessential anti-Semitism. The conflict legitimizes anti-Semitism for anti-Semites. The solution to the conflict is to call the discrimination, demonization, and intended destruction of Israel on the battlefields of the United Nations and the Middle East, by its name—anti-Semitism. . . .
At the end of the anti-Semitism meeting—which was informal because formal agreement by the General Assembly to address the subject would have run smack into Arab and OIC intransigence—a joint statement was issued. The lack of formality meant it could not take the form of an official UN resolution. . . . Fifty states signed on to what could be called the New York declaration on anti-Semitism.
Tellingly, 90 percent of the signatories are fully free democracies (on the Freedom House scale), while only 45 percent of all UN member states are fully free.
Read more at Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
More about: Anti-Semitism, Ban Ki-Moon, Israel & Zionism, Muslim-Jewish relations, United Nations