A leading human rights advocate accused the United Nations and its member nations of being "the leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism" and "inciting murderous intolerance towards" Jewish people during an unprecedented speech Monday at the international body’s headquarters in New York City.
Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust (IHRH), stood before the U.N. and lambasted it for fanning the flames of global anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel, according to a copy of her remarks.
Bayefsky delivered her rebuke during an informal briefing on the threat anti-Semitism poses to international peace and security that was organized on the sidelines of the U.N. by the permanent mission of Palau.
While the briefing took place within the U.N.’s walls—and was attended mainly by members of the public and outside organizations—it was not formally sponsored by the international organization, leading Bayefsky to launch a scathing criticism.
"The U.N. is not having a conference on the threat that global anti-Semitism poses to international peace and security," she said. "This is lunch-time. The courageous organizer, assisted by the principled representatives of the small state of Palau, is independent of the U.N. The facilities are not free."
"But why couldn’t the U.N., founded on the ashes of the Jewish people, and presently witnessing a widespread resurgence in anti-Semitism, sponsor a conference on combating global anti-Semitism?" Bayefsky asked. "The answer is clear: Because the United Nations itself is the leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism."
Bayefsky went on to criticize top U.N. officials and the organization for "mass produci[ing] inequality for Jews and the Jewish nation."
"Photo-ops of the U.N. secretary-general and the U.N. high commissioner for human rights at the gates of Auschwitz are not an alibi," she said, dubbing these worthless public relations moves.
"One does not honor the memory of Jews murdered by intolerance six decades ago by inciting murderous intolerance towards the remnant of the Jewish people in the here and now," Bayefsky said. "Incitement to hate, like declaring Israel to be racist—as does the U.N. Durban Declaration—the flagship of the U.N.’s racist anti-racism program of action."
The U.N. has vociferously criticized Israel and its military over the past weeks of indiscriminately waging war against the Palestinian people, a charge that critics such as Bayefsky said is rooted in the organization’s deep-seated bias against the Jewish state.
Around 35 percent of all resolutions and decisions approved by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council target Israel, Bayefsky said, noting, "That’s anti-Semitism."
Additionally, 50 percent of the emergency sessions held by the U.N.’s General Assembly (G.A.) over the past 60 years "were convened to denounce Israel," Bayefsky said, pointing out that no such session has been called "on any other state in other thirty years."
In 2013, 70 percent of the G.A. resolutions targeting a specific country for human rights abuses focused on Israel, she said, adding that this is further proof of the U.N.’s anti-Semitic agenda.
The organization’s latest bid to delegitimize Israel focuses on accusing the Jewish state of war crimes in its most recent conflict with Gaza, Bayefsky said.
"Today U.N. anti-Semitism has taken yet one more treacherous turn. The U.N. has launched a legal pogrom against the Jewish state," she said. "Hired guns, posing as independent arbiters, like William Schabas are appointed to discover what they’ve already found. Guilty!"
"Phony legal rules misinterpret proportionality to favor a more even number of dead Israelis," she continued. "The Iron Dome [missile defense system] worked too well! And the International Criminal Court is poised to pounce."
"Serious about never again?" she asked. "Then never forget that the perversion of the legal system is how genocide begins. A legal pogrom serves as a license to kill."