Following the scandalous speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Geneva on Monday, the International Jewish Caucus, a coalition of Jewish organizations at the Durban Review Conference, has called on the United Nations to react appropriately and do not allow the Iranian leader to hijack the UN’s critical human rights agenda. "Preaching hate and intolerance at a world forum to combat just that is extraordinary, and the speech marks a new low point in the history of the United Nations," World Jewish Congress president Ronald S. Lauder declared in Geneva afterwards.
B’nai B’rith International (BBI) honorary president Richard D. Heideman, head of the 50-strong BBI delegation at the DRC, said: "We walked out as Ahmadinejad began to speak. We protested giving this human rights platform to the worst sponsor of terrorism in the world, who is an avid Holocaust denier and who makes it clear that Israel has not right to exist. He has been made the star of the show, and this is disgraceful. We did not want to dignify his presence nor listen to this violator of human rights. He makes a mockery of democracy, freedom and the rights of those who cherish justice and equality."
The International Jewish Caucus warmly welcomed that European diplomats had walked out of the conference chamber when Ahmadinejad talked of call Israel was "a racist state". Mike Whine of the European Jewish Congress said: "The Europeans showed a united front against this agitator, and the Norwegian foreign minister made it clear with this speech Ahmadinejad has placed himself outside the UN foundations and its human rights declarations. He added that while Durban I would be remembered for anti-Semitic excesses, Durban II would be remembered for the hateful attacks of a man against the entire United Nations."
Rosalind Preston OBE of the Jewish Human Rights Coalition UK criticized that Ahmadinejad had "distracted the world again from the needs of men and women who suffer day in day out from racism, which can only be combated effectively if the democratic countries curb the manipulative influence of regimes such as the Iranian one in the United Nations," she pointed out.
The International Jewish Caucus at the Durban Review Conference in Geneva comprises the following organizations: Anti-Defamation League, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, B’nai B’rith International, CEJI: A Jewish Contribution To An Inclusive Europe, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, European Jewish Congress, European Union of Jewish Students, Jewish Human Rights Coalition (UK), NGO Monitor, Simon Wiesenthal Center, South African Jewish Board of Deputies, Women’s International Zionist Organization, and the World Union of Jewish Students.
The World Jewish Congress Diplomatic Corps was also strongly represented in Geneva and lobbied delegates.
