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World Jewish News
Israel recalls Swiss envoy to protest Durban II
20.04.2009
Israel said it was recalling its ambassador to Switzerland on Monday in protest at a United Nations conference on racism in Geneva attended by Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Israeli officials have also voiced anger at a meeting that Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz held on Sunday with Ahmadinejad, who has questioned whether the Nazi Holocaust happened and called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday thanked the Western countries intending to boycott the summit, known as Durban II.
The event will open later Monday without Israel, the U.S. and at least seven other countries concerned it could become a platform of anti-Israeli rhetoric. The opening day of the summit happens to coincide with Holocaust remembrance day in Israel.
"Six million of our people were slaughtered in the Holocaust. Not everyone has learned the lesson, unfortunately," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet in broadcast remarks.
"While we commemorate them, a conference purporting to be against racism will convene in Switzerland. The guest of honor is a racist, a Holocaust-denier who makes no secret of his intention of wiping Israel off the face of the earth."
Netanyahu's office later said that he and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman decided to recall Ambassador Ilan Elgar from Berne "for consultations and in protest at the conference in Geneva."
Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel and denied the Holocaust, was the only head of state to accept the United Nations invitation to speak at at the April 20-25 event.
Israel had said from the outset that it would boycott the event, called Durban II, and the U.S., Canada, Italy, Holland, Germany, Australia and New Zealand have followed suit.
France said Monday that its ambassador to Geneva would attend, but would walk out immediately if the conference turned into a platform for racist comments against Israel. Britain and the Czech Republic had earlier said they would take part in the conference, but without a high-level official.
Israel, meanwhile, has sent a delegation to Geneva to publicly protest the conference.
Ahmadinejad met upon landing in Geneva with Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz, despite vocal Israeli opposition. Ahmadinejad was also due to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, officials of various international organizations in Geneva, and Swiss officials and business executives.
As part of its publicity campaign, the Israelis will organize demonstrations during the speech, and will distribute materials on human rights violations in Iran - with particular emphasis on public executions and violence against women.
The campaign will be overseen by Israel Ambassador to Geneva Ronnie Lashno-Yaar. He will be assisted by Nobel Prize laureate Elie Weisel, U.S. law Prof. Alan Dershowitz and film actor Jon Voight. A special media room will also be set up in Geneva, to provide immediate responses to anti-Israeli statements.
A special delegation of 14 Israeli students will also be taking part. All the students speak foreign languages and have undergone extensive training by the Foreign Ministry and the World Jewish Congress.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman issued a statement on Sunday saying "an international conference in which a racist like Ahmadinejad, who preaches daily about Israel's destruction, is allowed to speak, says all that needs to be said about its character and purpose."
Lieberman added that Israel could not ignore that a Holocaust-denier has been invited to take part in a convention taking place on the very same day that the Jewish people commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day to remember the six million Jews murdered in Europe by Nazi Germany and its accomplices.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday explained that the United States had decided to boycott a United Nations conference on racism because the draft for the summit risked declaring "hypocritical allegations" against Israel.
"I would love to be involved in a useful conference that addressed continuing issues of racism and discrimination around the globe," Obama said in Trinidad on Sunday after attending the Summit of the Americas.
But he said the language of the UN's draft declaration "raised a whole set of objectionable provisions" and risked a reprise of the 2001 predecessor summit in Durban, "which became a session through which folks expressed antagonism toward Israel in ways that were often times completely hypocritical and counterproductive."
Источник: Haaretz
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