I arrived in Geneva on Sunday lunchtime, I knew very little about what my purpose was at the conference or even what the conference would be about, apart from being told about the disgusting behaviour of many NGO’s at the 2001 Conference against Racism.
When we arrived we met up with our fellow delegates from across the world, many students from Britain, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Spain, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Canada and only a few surprisingly from the USA. We had several sessions with key political figures explaining to us the structure of the conference, the outcome document and ultimately what we were in Geneva to do.
In 2001 the conference in Durban became known as the ‘hatefest’, outside the UN and within it NGO’s and activists were shouting antisemetic slogans, accusing the Jews of some almighty conspriracy and intimidating anyone Jewish at the conference. I would like to point out that I have always been one of these people who is wary of the equation that anti-zionism is anti-semitism, i have generally always rejected that idea and I will continue to reject it as a student in Leeds, however the people who were campaigning on behalf of the Palestinians in 2001 were not using language that could created a blur between anti-zionism and anti-semitism, these people were using out and out anti-semetic language.
So clearly, we were expecting much of the same in Geneva, we were pleasantly surprised, we were not greeted by placards accusing us of wild conspiracies, we arrived and the city seemed a little dull. On Monday morning we started, the conference kicked off and we were listening and observing the conference with great interest, and I might add with great anxiety. Of course we were all waiting for the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s address to the UN and waiting to see how the remaining western European countries dealt with this tyrant. I wish I could write that I did not expect to hear those words come out of Ahmadinejad’s mouth, however the entire UN knew exactly what was coming, even after being told to tone down his words by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, he still managed to come out with some vile notions, he accused the Zionist of starting the war in Iraq, questioned the holocaust, and numerous times accused the Zionists of taking advantage of the so called holocaust.
This conference was a farce to begin with. As a Jewish student attending the conference, it was rife with antisemitism, I was personally accused by a member of another NGO of having an intrinsic born desire to control the world, was subsequently blamed for the slave trade and accused of wanting to murder the Palestinians, she later told me that every single non-Jew in the world hates the Jews and more specifically that 56% of the conference hated the Jews, so clearly the remaining 44% must have been Jewish....
On the friday a Canadian NGO stood up and denied that Antisemitism even existed and accused Israel and the 'Zionist Lobby' of creating the myth of antisemitism to fuel the zionist expansion, they later declared to the main plenary that 9/11 did not happen and it is a conspiracy, I will let you try to guess who they blamed.
Israel has its flaws, it has racists, as does every country, however there is no way that it can be labelled racist, Gaza cannot be described as a genocide and this is all propaganda fuelled by Iran (Who sent a small number of NGO's to spread a message of hate). And just to add, I have been criticised in the last few days for not mentioning the Palestinians in my articles, the Palestinians are suffering, suffering greatly from poor leadership both in Israel and within the occupied territories, however this conference was never meant to be about Israel/Palestine, it was meant to be about human rights, I am focusing on Israel in my articles because at this conference criticism of Israel jumped to a new level I have never witnessed before, all of my perhaps more innocent left leaning principles were smashed by peoples and NGO’s blatant anti-semitism that I witnessed be excused because they mention the word Zionist at various points in a sentence as well as the word Jew.
Language is everything, the language that people use today about Israel has origins from the 2001 conference, the 2001 conference as stated in the numerous times has been discredited as a 'hatefest', this hatefest produced language that is deeply offensive to Jews.
Just because this sort of offensive language is used in the United Nations, a supposedly respectable international body, it does not mean it is right. The language used by NGO's, Iran, Sudan and ultimately the Iranian president are still vile and beyond comprehension. As a Jewish student in Leeds, I am subjected to this language about Israel on a daily basis, the people who use this language I do not deem to be anti-semetic, however the origins of the language, being the Durban 1 conference is most definitely rooted in pure out and out anti-semitism.
The NGO's present at this conference were not the SWP, Respect or other vocal anti-Israel campaigners on campus, they were disgusting and despicable organisations whose only concern are to be racist and to abuse the platform given to them by our almighty United Nations. Somehow the supposed self proclaimed bastions of anti-racism being the SWP, Respect and other far left political groups have adopted this language and declared it as acceptable when criticising Israel, I would advise any vocal critic of Israel to look deeply at where their language originates from, my suspicion is that terms like apartheid, concentration camp in Gaza and other terms have their origins from some of the NGO's that attended the 2001 conference. Let me make it perfectly clear, many, if not most of the NGO's I encountered had some link to extremism, terrorism or the Iranian government. The respected ones like Amnesty were not visible at this conference...I wonder why.
This was the first time I had ever visited Geneva or the United Nations, I also suspect this will be the last as what I experienced I truly struggle to put into words.
Jewish students were victimised by the UN itself for exposing the joke that the conference was, there were two separately accredited Jewish student organisations, the French Union of Jewish students were responsible for the protest with Clown wigs and red noses during the Iranian president's speech, my organisation I was accredited with, the European Union of Jewish Students had nothing what so ever to do with this protest, however the UN subsequently attempted to ban all Jewish students from entering the United Nations complex in Geneva on numerous occasions. The UN held several press conference's specifically about 'Jewish students disrupting' the conference, this was purely a way to deflect attention away from the circus that the conference became.
We have all heard about the major western powers boycotting the event, however what you have not heard about is the real embarrassment to the UN. Organisations like Amnesty International and the International Red Cross chose not to attend in force with large delegations, they were embarrassed to publically be part of such a farce, this is what struck me most, a vocal critic of Israel choosing not to attend an Anti-Racism conference aimed at promoting Human rights, why did they not come? Pure embarrassment at being part of such an event. (Just to point out the International headquarters of the Red Cross is across the road from the UN complex and no high level Red Cross delegates were visibly present.)
Lastly, on Friday several NGO's which are hard line to say the least, and almost definitely sponsored in some manner by the Iranian government were due to hold side fringe meetings for NGO delegates, for an unknown reason I understand that the UN revoked all press passes to NGO meetings that day, they refused to give journalists a reason why. The UN was clearly embarrassed by the content of what was being aired within their own four walls, they have been giving a platform all week to racists, bigots and terrorist supporting organisations.
Ultimately the loser at this conference was Human Rights, I proudly attended a 200 strong rally for Darfur outside the Palais DeNations, we had hundreds of cars, including diplomatic cars honking their horns in support of our cause, however the United Nations is simply a talk shop where real human rights issues are ignored and great nations like Britain pay lip service to some of the worst human rights abusers in the world, like China,
Darfur was ignored.
What happened to the profound saying...
NEVER AGAIN
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