The Macon Telegraph · 10 December 1998

CP-1998-010

U.N. General Assembly lists anti-Semitism as form of racism

N.Y. Times News Service, United Nations

Transcribed from the clipping

“UNITED NATIONS — For the first time in more than half a century, the U.N. General Assembly decided Wednesday to list anti-Semitism as a form of racism. The resolution was adopted by consensus on the 50th anniversary of the international convention against genocide and a day before the United Nations celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In a resolution introduced by Indonesia on behalf of more than 100 developing nations, the Assembly also warned against new avenues for disseminating the ‘repugnant views’ of racist organizations… General Assembly resolutions do not carry the force of Security Council resolutions, but they reflect world opinion. In the past, the Assembly had voted to equate Zionism with racism.… This year the Clinton administration lobbied hard to include a condemnation of anti-Semitism in the resolution, titled Measures to Combat Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. ‘The U.N. is about tolerance and inclusion,’ said Felice Gaer, director of Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, at the American Jewish Committee. ‘But this is the first time that the U.N. has used the phrase ‘anti-Semitism,’ which has been fought over for years and kept out of any resolutions.’… The monitor, known as a special rapporteur, was asked to examine racist incidents ‘against blacks, Arabs and Muslims’ and ‘xenophobia, Negrophobia, anti-Semitism and related intolerance.’ Secretary General Kofi Annan… said he was aware that ‘the United Nations is regarded by many as biased against the State of Israel.’ ‘I know that Israelis are offended when other nations’ delegates leave the room as Israelis rise to speak,’ he said.”

Context added by this archive

Seven years after the repeal the same body names antisemitism as a form of racism for the first time in its history, and the wire story explains it by reminding readers what the Assembly used to say instead. Three years later the parallel forum at Durban voted to put the old formula back.

Cite this item

"U.N. General Assembly lists anti-Semitism as form of racism," The Macon Telegraph, 10 December 1998. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1998-010. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1998-010

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