← Covering Palestine

Des Moines Register · 17 December 1991

CP-1991-010

U.N. General Assembly overturns 1975 Zionism-is-racism resolution

Israel scores a victory as Arabs say the 111-25 vote would hurt the peace talks

Associated Press, United Nations

U.N. General Assembly overturns 1975 Zionism-is-racism resolution — Des Moines Register, 17 December 1991
Des Moines Register · 17 December 1991

Transcribed from the clipping

“The United Nations on Monday voted 111-25 to repeal the 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism. Thirteen members abstained and 17 did not take part. In favor of the repeal: Albania, Antigua-Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium… India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya… Ukraine, U.S.S.R, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, Zaire, Zambia. Against repeal: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Yemen. Abstaining: Angola, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Laos, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar (Burma), Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe. Absent from the vote: Bahrain, Chad, China, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Equitorial Guinea, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kuwait, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Vanuatu.… Arab moderates did not participate. That was seen as an effort not to antagonize the United States, which pressured them to support the measure. Non-participation is considered a weaker statement than abstention.”

Context added by this archive

The only printing here that runs the whole roll call, every country in all four columns. Read it against the interviews a New York Times correspondent did in 1980 and three names change meaning. Sri Lanka introduced the original resolution and its delegate had said he never worked out what it meant; in 1991 Sri Lanka voted against repealing it. Nigeria, which had called the formula a good abstraction, voted for repeal. Tunisia, which had wanted it kept as a negotiating asset, did not vote. The page also carries a mission appeal: thirteen dollars and ninety cents will feed ten hungry people.

Cite this item

"U.N. General Assembly overturns 1975 Zionism-is-racism resolution," Des Moines Register, 17 December 1991. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1991-010. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1991-010

Elsewhere in the archive

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1991-010.

See it in the archive reel · Full text of every clipping · Dataset