UN Walkout Over Israel Slur
France led a walkout at the United Nations last week after Libya’s Deputy Ambassador compared the Israeli military’s treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza to the way the Nazis sent Jews to concentration camps.
French Ambassador Jean Maurice Ripert was followed by Americian, British, Belgian and Costa Rican diplomats after Ibrahim Dabbashi made the comments during a private meeting on the situation in the Middle East.
The meeting was postponed following the walkout. Britain's deputy ambassador, Karen Pierce, said: “A number of council members were dismayed by the approach taken by Libya and do not believe that such language helps advance the peace process.”
The Anti-Defamation League praised the diplomats who left the meeting and described the comments as "deeply insulting."
ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said: “There can be no comparison between Israel's effort to defend its citizens against terrorism and the Nazis' systematic killing of six million Jews in the Holocaust.
"Any attempt to equate the two is odious, patently false and deeply insulting to the memory of the millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust, to the survivors and their families and to the entire Jewish community."
In a letter to U.N. Security Council President Dumisani S. Kumalo, the League called for an official statement condemning the Libyan representative for using the forum of the Security Council “as a platform for anti-semitism".
The letter said: “The apparent silence of the Presidency and other members of the Council create a perception of agreement with the views expressed by the Libyan representative.”
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