Walk-out at Iran leader's speech

[cali]

Diplomats have walked out of a speech by the Iranian president at a UN anti-racism conference after he described Israel as a "racist government".

Two protesters, wearing coloured wigs, briefly disrupted the beginning of the speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but he continued speaking.

Shortly afterwards a stream of Western delegates walked out when he attacked the creation of the state of Israel.

Some of those who stayed clapped as Mr Ahmadinejad continued his speech.

The walk-out is a public relations disaster for the United Nations, which had hoped the conference would be a shining example of what the UN is good at - uniting to combat injustice in the world, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva.

<snip<

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8008572.stm

[henank]

1. Excellent. n/t

[cali]

2. although I'm glad they did it, considering what Ahmadinejad said-

a Norwegian delegate called it incitement to hatred- I'm dismayed at the wasted opportunity to tackle racism and related issues, as well as at the anti-semitism and Israel bashing.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Yes, it's very sad what this conference has devolved into. A great opportunity lost. nt

[cali]

5. It makes me nuts that the U.N. can't get it together

the HRC is a joke. They must do better. Vital issues and real people are being swept under the rug.

[Captain Hilts]

6. When you think of the shit happening to people for who they are around the globe...

it's a crime the UN has let this happen.

People are being killed, maimed, forced into the military, raped and sold into slavery every day because of who they are and the UN lets this kook hijack the conference.

[LeftishBrit]

9. Agreed. Sad.

[MrBig]

12. If I could rec a reply...

I could not agree with your post any more. It's a complete shame that the UN let this happen...especially when everyone KNEW it would. The real victims are those who should have had a voice at this conference.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

8. How could it?

Either you give equal weight to countries that respect human rights and countries that don't - in which case the latter make a large majortiy - or you don't - in which case the entire basis of the UN as a democratic meeting ground between states falls apart.

One of the few ideas John McCain put forward that I liked was for a "league of Democracies" - a middle ground between American unilateralism and the UN.

[Captain Hilts]

10. Yes. I agreed with that too.

[aranthus]

22. Agreed.

I've been saying this for some time now (about the UN, not the League of Democracies). That's a great idea.

[aranthus]

4. Good that they walked out, but bad that they went in the first place.

When are people going to wake up and recognize that conferences like this do more harm than good to the fight against racism?

[Captain Hilts]

7. That's exactly right. More harm than good. nt

[IndianaGreen]

11. BBC carried video of demonstrators outside, many Iranian exiles,

with some carrying posters of Ahmadinejad wearing SS uniform.

[bemildred]

13. Foreign leaders blast Ahmadinejad's Durban II speech

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the Durban II conference on racism raised heated criticism with many diplomats storming out during the speech when he accused Israel of establishing a "cruel and repressive racist regime" over the Palestinians, and said "Zionism" had penetrated mass media and financial systems to extend its domination over other countries. World leaders were quick to issue their criticism of the speech, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy saying "the speech pronounced by Iran's president is ... an intolerable call for racist hatred that flouts the ideals and the values inscribed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Sarkozay also called for an "extremely firm reaction by the European Union."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who was present during the speech, said "I deplore the use of this platform by the Iranian President to accuse, divide and even incite. We must all turn away from such a message in both form and substance."

U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Alejandro Wolf called the speech "shameful", while Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper praised the walk-out during the speech as "a very positive thing."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called Ahmadinejad's remarks offensive, inflammatory and utterly unacceptable. That such remarks were
made using the platform of the UN's anti-racism conference is all the more reprehensible."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079653.html

[bemildred]

14. Ahmadinejad: States boycotting Durban II out of arrogance and selfishness

Mr Diplomacy speaks.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday said countries that are boycotting the United Nations racism conference currently underway in Switzerland are doing so out of "arrogance and selfishness."

"In our opinion, this is arrogance and selfishness and the root cause of the problems of the world," Ahmadinejad told reporters, after his speech at the UN conference on racism sparked a mass walk-out by EU diplomats.

The conference has been boycotted by the United States, Israel, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Poland and Germany. The Czech Republic announced following his speech that it would be withdrawing from the summit over his remarks on Israel and the Holocaust

Dozens of Western representatives at the UN-sponsored Durban II conference against racism rose from their chairs and walked out of the hall in Geneva as Ahmadinejad launched a tirade against the Israeli government. The Iranian leader also blasted the United States for its invasion of Iraq.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079838.html

[bemildred]

15. Netanyahu: We won't let Holocaust deniers repeat genocide against Jews

And Nuttyahoo is thanking the deity that Ahm-an-idjit just cannot seem to control his mouth. I mean, no amount of money could have bought what Ahm-an-idjit handed him on a plate today for free.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said Holocaust deniers would not be permitted to repeat a genocide against Jews.

Speaking at the official Yom Hashoah Holocaust remembrance ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Netanyahu also criticized the president of Switzerland for meeting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday.

Netanyahu called Ahmadinejad a Holocaust denier who wants to perpetrate another massacre of Jews. "We will not allow the Holocaust deniers to carry out another Holocaust against the Jewish people. This is the supreme duty of the state of Israel. This is my supreme duty as prime minister of Israel," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu called the Durban II conference, at which Ahmadinejad spoke Monday, "a demonstration of hatred for Israel," adding that "the world sounds a weak voice against those who advocate erasing Israel."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079641.html

[cali]

16. gad, what a pair. perfect bookend idiots.

trust nut-boy to chomp down on ahjidiot's inflammatory comments and regurgitate them for his own sleazoid purposes.

[bemildred]

18. Yeah, a couple of the real entertainment "values" in world politics.

Like Kim Jong Il and the guy in Georgia and Chavez and Khaddafi. I'm one of the people who likes Chavez, but he really pulls his weight when it comes to putting on a show. I kind of miss Blair too.

[cali]

19. As for entertainment value, I don't think Blair measures up

mustache creep Bolton did. Now there was a guy who could put on an idiot show.

[bemildred]

21. Oh yeah, who could forget Dolton?

Most of the Bushites were sort of bland suit-droids, but he carried his weight too. He ought to be a pundit really.

I'll just say that Blair had his moments.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

17. Muzzlewatch has lots of interesting commentary on Durban II..

http://www.muzzlewatch.com/category/durban-ii/

[cali]

20. thoughtful piece. thanks for the link.

[Violet_Crumble]

23. Why was he invited to speak there anyway?

I mean, it's not like it's any surprise that he mounted his pet hobby-horse and went galloping off on it when he was given a platform to do it. The original version of the speech had references to Holocaust denial and was far worse than what he ended up reading, but why at some point didn't someone pull the carpet out from under him and tell him he wasn't welcome to give his speech?

[cali]

24. Per U.N. protocol he couldn't be excluded.

In fact, per that protocol, as the only head of state in attendence, he got the most prominent speaking slot. Aside from that, his views are not anathema to many members of the HRC.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

25. Sounds as though there are a number of side-shows going on, including

this one:

http://www.muzzlewatch.com/2009/04/22/poor-angelina-jon-voight-is-wacked/

Pt I: Poor Angelina: Jon Voight’s “New Holocaust”
Posted on April 22 2009 by Cecilie Surasky under Alan Dershowitz , Durban II.
Jon Voight starred in the first movie that ever made me really cry: Conrack. It was one of those classic patronizing white people fantasy movies about the inspiring white teacher who saves the poor black kids living in the segregated South. But I was a kid and I cried through the whole thing. Ironic now, since Voight made me cry again but for an entirely different reason.

He used to be liberal but he’s become a born-again lover-of-the-Torah (see video) and a somewhat incoherent anti-communist. He said of Obama recently:

This is a perilous time, and more than ever, the world needs a united and strong America. If, God forbid, we live to see Mr. Obama president, we will live through a socialist era that America has not seen before, and our country will be weakened in every way.

He started off his talk at the anti-semitism Dershowitz hate-fest panel with an ode to the Jews. He’s cultish in his fetishization of the Jews. He kicked off with a couple poems about how we Jews are pretty much the cat’s meow. We’re even good in business. It’s weird and embarrassing. We’re chosen alright:

The Jewish people have given mankind the perfect tools for living, the teachings of the great Torah, which if followed, bring us to peace love courage wisdom and justice and every possible answer to life’s needs.

(Photo: My bad picture of Voight and Wiesel) This is hard core. I don’t even know any Jews, including the practicing ones, who believe that. Those Chabdniks are good. After letting us know what a “righteous Christian ” he is, he gets into it:

Last year I visited the victims of suicide bombings. It was very difficult for me to spend time with these people. Ron Kerma is here-his daughter, 17 years old, was killed in a senseless act. I looked in their faces and my heart was almost torn out. I spoke to a young girl who was victim of a bombing, and she expressed to me she is trying to find ways to forgive. We spent time in Sderot which has been a victim of 7,000 bombings since the turn of the century. All the children have the syndrome that comes from being in battle- they wake up screaming.

Then he cuts to the chase:

I feel complete complete outrage at anyone who can make excuses for this barbarism. And I feel complete contempt for anyone who is not intelligent enough to see that this propaganda in the media painting the Palestinians as poor victims is capable of destroying the Jewish nation of Israel. (I think he means the Palestinians are capable of destroying..)

We’re witnessing a new type of holocaust. And we good people of all faiths should express outrage and demand the truth be heard. The Palestinian radicals have only one prayer on their lips. And it is to kill and rid every Jew young and old from Israel. Let us pray for the courage to stand up and fight against all antisemitism that has found its way to all the evildoers, let us pray for peace with the understanding we do not bend to terrorism in any shape or form for the sake of peace. God bless us.

That’s the new line. It’s not even enough these days to shut everybody down by saying they’re anti-Semites. The new line set forth in this session, and drawn aptly by Alan Dershowitz later on, is that this is all the new Holocaust. Thousands of Palestinians die, but this is a new Jewish Holocaust. And the moral Israelis, as ever, are simply defending themselves from the evil radical Palestinians who want nothing more than to kill the Jews.

Scholars have to study this. It’s just too amazing. Shoahism.


and

http://www.muzzlewatch.com/category/durban-ii/

Pt. II Dershowitz et al, “The worst two hours of my life.”
Posted on April 23 2009 by Cecilie Surasky under Alan Dershowitz , Anti-semitism , Durban II , Islamophobia. No Comments
That’s what a Palestinian friend from the West Bank said after what was at times a hateful, nasty 2-hour long harangue by Anne Bayefsky, Jon Voight, Elie Wiesel, Alan Dershowitz, Natan Sharansky and Shelby Steele. “I just listened to 2 hours of demonization of Palestinians and Muslims fueled by racism and hate,” said my clearly shaken friend.

I already posted some choice quotes by Jon-the-new-Holocaust-Voight. The tour de force of the session, ostensibly on anti-semitism but really promoting anti-Arab/Palestinian/Muslim hate, was Alan Dershowitz. (Although conservative African American scholar Shelby Steele, who gets plenty of applause from a room filled with white people, reaches a whole new depth in his theory about the end of white supremacy and the deep shame of people of color regarding their own inadequacies.)

Dershowitz is the schoolyard bully all grown-up, very smart and even angrier. Watching him, you feel like he might explode. Like all good demagogues, he knows how to whip up an audience at the most nasty applause lines. I admit it. I’m scared of him.

In the age of Obama and Iraq war exhaustion, the War on Terror clearly no longer provides the right wing Israel lobby with the umph it needs to delegitimize Palestinian claims for justice or, frankly, simple human decency. Here, Dershowitz launches a new frame. Netanyahu et al have been pushing the Hitler/Ahmedinejad comparison for some time now. But this is the first time I’ve heard such a sweeping condemnation of Palestinians (with a few exceptions of course, because Dersh “doesn’t like to generalize”) as Nazis. Excerpts from video above:

“Painful truths about the Holocaust today are being suppressed by college campuses, they’re being suppressed wherever the Palestinian conflict is being discussed. My painful job today is to talk about one of those very difficult historical truths that many would prefer to see ignored..

The terrible, terrible, terrible tragedy is that there is a direct unbroken line between Hitler and
Woe unto any of you out there who support Hamas. You are supporting Hitler’s heirs. Whether you consider yourself a leftist or a centrist, you are complicit in the worst evil of the twentieth century. And there is no way of breaking that bond. As long as Hamas maintains its genocidal attitudes towards the Jewish people…

This conference is a hate fest. Like Nuremberg was a hate fest…

Durban I traces its roots to Nuremberg. It traces its roots to the Nazi-Husseini alliance.

There is a lot to say about his line of reasoning. In future posts.