Pat Dollard

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Hat tip to Israel Matzav. Please check out the site for all corresponding links.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

This Saturday, November 29, will mark the 61st anniversary of the adoption of a UN resolution calling for the partition of the portion of the British mandate that is west of the Jordan River into a Jewish and a ‘Palestinian’ state. The Jews accepted the resolution; the Arabs rejected it. As a result, the State of Israel was born nearly six months later and was immediately attacked by five Arab armies.

The day is mourned by the United Nations each year as a day of solidarity with the ‘Palestinian people.’ This year, the festivities are starting early. On Monday, the chairman of the UN General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, called Israel an ‘apartheid state’ and called on UN member nations to destroy it the way the apartheid state of South Africa was destroyed 20 years ago (Hat Tip: Red Tulips).

Brockmann made the apartheid allegation twice in one day, once in the morning at the annual meeting of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and again in the General Assembly in the afternoon. In his words:

“I spoke this morning about apartheid and how Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories appear so similar to the apartheid of an earlier era, a continent away. I believe it is very important that we in the United Nations use this term. We must not be afraid to call something what it is. It is the United Nations, after all, that passed the International Convention against the Crime of Apartheid, making clear to all the world that such practices of official discrimination must be outlawed wherever they occur.”

Bayefsky notes: “His remarks are especially offensive since the facts indicate the complete reverse. One-fifth of Israel’s population is Arab with more democratic rights than in any Arab state. Arab states have been essentially rendered Judenrein since the creation of Israel. UN resolutions denounce Jews living in Arab-claimed territory as “Judaization,” and no mention is ever made of “apartheid Palestine.”"

“Brockmann’s call,” said Bayefsky, “was in effect, a call for the political destruction of Israel by means of the same strategy adopted against apartheid South Africa.” Brockmann said:

“More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a non-violent means of pressuring South Africa…Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel…”
The adoption of the 1947 partition resolution, accepted by Jews and rejected by Arabs, is now bemoaned by the UN. Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan described Palestinian Solidarity Day as “a day of mourning and a day of grief.” This year, as in years past, the UN used the occasion to fly only two flags, that of “Palestine” and that of the United Nations. Though the resolution was ostensibly the UN’s first commitment to a two-state solution, today the flag of the member state of Israel is left out.

The Palestinian flag is on the left, the United Nations flag on the right. Speakers from left to right who voiced no difficulty with the omission of the flag of Israel:

Riyad Malki, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority; Jorge Urbina, Representative of the President of the Security Council; Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, President of the General Assembly; Paul Badji, Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations; H.M.G.S. Palihakkara, Chairman of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories; and the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs.
The United States provides 22% of the United Nations’ budget and hosts its headquarters in New York where this (not surprising) outrage took place. Under the administration of Barack Hussein Obama – who idolizes the UN – one can bet on that percentage increasing and on the UN remaining in New York for at least the next four years.

More on Resolution 181 – the partition resolution – here.

For those who need a reminder about what apartheid really was – and why it has no connection to Israel, where the Arabs are treated better than they are in any Arab country – go here.

And no – this is not the first time that only the ‘Palestinian’ flag has been flown at the ceremony. Remember the 2005 ‘celebration’ and the map without Israel?

Outrageous? Sure. But who do you think is going to stop it? Read the whole thing.