MEDIA RELEASE

Ahmadinejad Uses UN Platform for Antsemitic, Anti-Zionist & Anti-Western Attack

The Jewish Human Rights Coalition UK condemned yesterday’s speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Durban Review Conference.

Ahmadinejad, speaking in his capacity as Head of State, used his platform to denigrate the Holocaust where he claimed “After World War II the Europeans made a whole nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering, they sent migrants from Europe to set up a racist nation in Palestine.” He also took the opportunity for a renewed attack on the West.

Heads of delegations from the European Union stood up and walked out of the plenary session as soon as Ahmadinejad’s speech crossed into the unacceptable after representations from a cross-section of NGOs including Jewish organisations, Baha’i International, women’s groups, lesbian, gay and bisexuals and Iranian dissidents.

“It is a travesty that the UN allows Ahmadinejad to hijack an Anti-Racism conference in this way”,

said Jeremy Newmark, CEO of the Jewish Leadership Council (speaking on behalf of the JHRC-UK).

“This has endangered, devalued and further delegitimized the entire Durban process.  We will be urging all those delegations that left the conference during his speech to seriously reflect on whether or not they continue to participate in the conference.”

“Carrying the scars from Durban I where I witnessed appalling anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric, I sadly felt a strong sense of déjà-vu”,

said Karen Pollock, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

“The fact that a racist was invited to address an anti-racism conference in the United Nations beggars belief. This is a stain on the UN and an affront to all those who genuinely support human rights.”

“Ahmadinejad has distracted the world again from the needs of men and women who suffer day in day out from racism”,

said Rosalind Preston OBE, co-Chair of the Jewish Human Rights Coalition UK.

“This can only be combated effectively if the democratic countries curb the manipulative influence of regimes such as the Iranian one in the United Nations.”

The Jewish Human Rights Coalition UK, established in 2007 to help combat racism and human rights abuses, consists of senior representatives from a cross section of Jewish organisations, including the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Community Security Trust, the Holocaust Educational Trust, B’nai B’rith London Bureau of International Affairs and the Jewish Leadership Council.