On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 6:04 AM, Isha Khan <bd_mailer@yahoo.com> wrote:
The subject of racism is a very touchy one for both its current and former practitioners. It was thus expected that some western countries with nasty past records of racism would boycott the UN racism conference in Geneva, scheduled for April 20, 2009. A couple of days before the event, the USA announced that it would sit out the Geneva forum. Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands soon followed suit. Through their boycotting the session they have sent a blatant message endorsing racism.
President Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran was the first government official to take the floor. As soon as he started reciting the Muslim prayer of invocation to begin his speech two pro-Israel Jewish saboteurs, dressed in clown costumes, tossed soft red objects. One may recall that for years before the collapse of the Apartheid regime of South Africa, Israel has been its best ally. Thus, such a rowdy behavior from Zionist hoodlums trying to disrupt the conference was not all that unexpected.
After a brief pause, President Ahmadinejad restarted his talk by accusing that the United States and Europe had helped establish Israel after World War II and victimize Palestinians. He said, "The victorious powers [of the world wars] call themselves the conquerors of the world, while ignoring or down-treading the rights of other nations by the imposition of oppressive laws and international arrangements...Following World War Two, they resorted to making an entire nation homeless on the pretext of Jewish suffering. They sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine. In compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive, racist regime in Palestine."
This was too much for other former racist countries like France and the UK to swallow, whose diplomats accompanied by some other Europeans walked out of the conference room.
President Ahmadinejad accused the western governments and the United States of defending Israel, calling the Zionist state the "racist perpetrator of genocide." Does such an accusation sound hollow or untrue? Not really if you have been following the trail of murder of unarmed civilians in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. It was not too long ago that the rogue nation had killed some thousand innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip, which can only be termed a cold-blooded orgy of murder, aggression and savagery, demonstrating Israel's long standing racism against the Palestinian people. And yet, none of those western governments and the USA, each with its own blood-stained history of lynching and racism, had the moral fortitude to demand a stop of such wanton murder.
The formula for Israel from day one has been nothing but crass racism that distorts history and uses and abuses religion to sanctify her hatred of the "other" people – the Arab Palestinians. It was, therefore, all kosher that on Nov. 10, 1975, General Assembly of the UN – when it was a functioning world body and not relegated to its deplorable current status as a body to sanction crimes of powerful western nations -- equated Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination. The Resolution 3379 was approved by a vote of 72 to 35 (opposition coming mostly from former colonial and racist regimes).
It took another 16 years when the UN General Assembly by a vote of 111 to 25 (with 13 abstentions and 15 absentees) revoked the Resolution 3379. This time the opposition came only from the Muslim states and Sri Lanka. India and the USSR, like most other countries, voted in favor of revocation, while China, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Bahrain and ten other nations were absent from voting.. By that time, President Sadat of Egypt had already signed the peace treaty with the Zionist state, which triggered Muslim disunity and weakened Palestinian leadership. Israel made revocation central to her demand for participation in the Madrid Peace Conference, which was co-sponsored by the USA and Spain in 1991. Under pressure from the U.S. administration of President George H.W. Bush, the UN passed the resolution of revocation.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly, introducing the motion to revoke Resolution 3379, President Bush said, "To equate Zionism with racism is to reject Israel itself, a member of good standing of the United Nations. This body cannot claim to seek peace and at the same time challenge Israel's right to exist. By repealing this resolution unconditionally, the United Nations will enhance its credibility and serve the cause of peace."
As later events have demonstrated over the last 18 years, the U.N. revocation was a serious mistake. It has only emboldened the pariah state to become more belligerent, ruthless and racist, more savage, militaristic and uncompromising. The UN itself has become the lapdog of the veto wielding powers within the Security Council. It has rewarded culprits more often than redressing cries and concerns of the victims of naked aggression, human rights abuse and torture. Not only has the credibility of the UN suffered irreparably, peace appears a far cry, almost like a mirage, today than ever before in our life time.
So, it is important that we understand why the UN in 1975 equated Zionism with racism. Merriam-Webster defines racism as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. Racism is a symbol of ignorance, rejection or denial about the root of human existence.
The characteristics of Israeli racism have been: (1) claims that the Jews are superior to all other races; (2) grants exclusive right of Jews around the world to Israeli citizenship while denying the non-Jews the same privilege; (3) attributes an inferior social, economic and political status to the non-Jewish population of Israel; (4) encourages immigration of Jews into Israeli and emigration and deportation of non-Jews from Israel; (5) does not allow immigration of non-Jews, not even those who crossed the front line to the Arab side in 1948, i.e., Israel denies the right of return of Palestinians, while she issues citizenship to any Jew (even an atheist) that had no historical connection whatsoever, neither now nor before, with Israel.
Zionism is racism because it rejects unity of mankind by depicting Palestinians as inherently inferior, like "worms", having "genetic defects."
Zionism is racism because it follows Cecil Rhodes' formula for settlement and colonization to the letter and spirit. If racism was wrong for South Africa and Rhodesia it cannot be right for the Zionist state of Israel today.
Zionism is racism because it is based on lies and a disingenuous slogan "a land without a people for a people without land", knowing too well that Palestine was inhabited by the people who today are victims of Israel's ethnic-cleansing campaigns.
Zionism is racism because it fails to acknowledge the Palestinians' unbroken ties to their homeland.
Zionism is racism because through its criminal activities of expulsion of indigenous Palestinians it is forcibly severing a relationship these people had to the land for over four millennia uninterrupted.
Zionism is racism because while it pretends to be a democratic movement its very actions show that it is not for plurality or inclusion of non-Jews in the political system of the government. Democracy cannot be just for one race -- the Jews, while it denies the same right to Palestinian Arabs.
Zionism is racism because while it encourages higher child-birth rate amongst the Jews it considers "Israeli Arabs" as "demographic" "time bombs."
Zionism is racism because it twists history and misuses religion to justify its crimes of stealing and further annexation and occupation of land from its original inhabitants. It is no accident that a 2003 opinion poll in Israel conducted by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies found that 31% of the Israeli Jews supported the expulsion of the Arab minority, and 46% supported clearance of the territories.
Israel's activities in recent years have also shown that it is not for peaceful coexistence with Palestinians, let alone a two-state solution. It is for complete annexation of the entire territory by demolition of Arab homes and eviction of Arab population, making the entire territory exclusively for its Jewish population.
(To be continued)
Dr Habib Siddiqui
USA
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