At the UN anti racism conference - where racism is honored and protests against discrimination punished - UN officials pulled conference credential badges from mainly Jewish groups and not those who cheered Ahmadinejad's hate filled, racist rant according to a story by Michael J. Jordan writing for the Jewish Telegraph Agency.
Carrying the theme of hate outside the official conference, Ahmadinejad's entourage and fellow travelers shrieked "Zio-Nazi" to Shoah (Holocaust) survivor and chronicler Elie Wiesel. (Watch YouTube video).
Considering the source, it was another well deserved honor to Wiesel. Back inside the conference hall, the European delegates who showily walked out at the beginning of Ahmadinajad's ravings, and which received wild applause from most of those remaining delegates, obediently filed back in once he was finished, to continue their "anti racist deliberations."
Member states took to the podium at the U.N.-sponsored anti-racism parley to highlight the issues of discrimination they care about -- and ignore those they'd rather disregard.
The representative from Venezuela condemned Israel's recent military operation in Gaza and its "constant violation" of Palestinian human rights, drawing modest applause. But he failed to mention his government's own threats against the Catholic Church.
Egypt and Syria talked about the plight of Palestinians --albeit steering clear of labeling Israel an apartheid state -- but they ignored state-sponsored discrimination against minorities and practitioners of free speech in their own countries.
The representative from South Africa talked about the Palestinians, but not about the genocide closer to home, in Darfur, Sudan. (snip)
For many, however, the conference was not about Israel or the Palestinians.
And then they continued to defame Jews, Judaism and the timeless homeland of Jews--Israel.
Sadly, some who should know better, participated in this farce. Vatican representatives did not leave when Ahmadinejad spoke; he didn't mention the Holocaust was their weak excuse. Speaking for the Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) stated in a New York Times story by Neil Farquhar:
"It is unfortunate that the inappropriate and out-of-line remarks of Ahmadinejad would obscure the only international forum to address racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia,"
"It is unfortunate that the inappropriate and out-of-line remarks of Ahmadinejad would obscure the only international forum to address racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia," Orwell would have been proud.
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