Times-News · 28 July 1985

CP-1985-003

Kenyan resolution saves women’s conference

PLO equates Zionism with racism

Associated Press, Nairobi

Transcribed from the clipping

“NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s host delegation negotiated a compromise Friday on a resolution that had threatened to undo the U.N. Decade for Women conference on its final day by equating Zionism with racism. The new language struck the word Zionism from the resolution, which was adopted by consensus of the 3,000 delegates with the grudging acquiescence of Israel’s enemies and praise from its friends. Alan Keyes, the only male U.S. delegate, told the conference the Americans accepted the resolution after insisting the reference to Zionism be stricken. His comments drew catcalls and some applause. ‘We reject the obscene notion that Zionism is racism,’ Keyes said. ‘No matter how much that slanderous lie is repeated, no amount of reiteration shall ever lend it any truth whatever.’ Zehdi Labib Terzi, the Palestine Liberation Organization observer at the United Nations, said the PLO would accept the language to save the conference, but stood by its belief that Zionism and racism were synonymous. ‘After hearing some threats and blackmail in this forum, we understand exactly what the circumstances are. But we are willing to accept the amendment made by the host country,’ Terzi said.… The delegates had adopted 94 of 372 paragraphs of a proposed document — called Forward-Looking Strategies — mapping the course of women’s advancement to the year 2000. Then the Zionism issue threw the session into disarray Friday night and forced it past a midnight deadline for adjournment and an end to the decade the United Nations dedicated to women’s issues.”

Context added by this archive

Three weeks before this, the archive holds a wire story reporting that Israel had refused travel permits to five Palestinian women invited to this conference, for security reasons. Here is the conference itself, ending past midnight, with the word struck out and a document about women’s advancement to the year 2000 left ninety-four paragraphs into three hundred and seventy-two. Neither story mentions the other.

Cite this item

"Kenyan resolution saves women’s conference," Times-News, 28 July 1985. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1985-003. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1985-003

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• Northern Border Secured, Says Israeli EnvoyThe Arizona Republic · 3 February 1985 · the same year
• No Travel Permits to U.N. ConferenceTelegram & Gazette · 10 July 1985 · the same year
• ‘Zionism is racism’: Death of U.N. dreamThe Macon Telegraph · 12 November 1985 · the same year