The Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution last night that calls for "elimination of all forms of religious intolerance." Included was a paragraph stating that the UN "recognizes with deep concern the overall rise in instances of intolerance and violence directed against members of many religious communities in various parts of the world, including cases motivated by Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and Christianophobia."
Israel abstained from supporting a similar resolution last year when a specific reference to anti-Semitism was omitted, despite the sharp increase of anti-Jewish attacks around the globe.
This year's resolution mentioned anti-Semitism, alongside Islamophobia and Christianophobia, despite an amendment offered by Pakistan aimed at removing or amending the reference to anti-Semitism. The ammendment, offered on behalf of the 60-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), was defeated 85 to 45 with 29 abstentions. Germany and the Netherlands played a major role in rejecting the OIC's argument.
Zina Kleitman, Israel's representative in the Third Committee, was pleased with the resolution. "This worrying increase in acts of hatred and incitement against Jewish communities, individuals and places of worship, is reprehensible and unjustifiable," she said. "It is a threat to our universal humanity and it demands a universal and urgent response."
Kleitman added that despite explanations offered by the OIC, its motives for seeking to alter the references to anti-Semitism were "as transparent as they [were] repulsive."
"Both the State of Israel and the United Nations were founded on the ashes of the Holocaust," Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said in a statement. "For both of us, the fight against religious intolerance is part of our raison d'etre. To deny that, is to deny our history and endanger our future. This January we will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. We owe it to the victims of the Holocaust, to its survivors and to those who fought and died for their liberation, never to forget its lesson and to be ever vigilant against the scourge of religious intolerance in all its forms, including anti-Semitism."
The resolution on religious intolerance was adopted in a unanimous 177-0 vote by the assembly's social and humanitarian committee, which has jurisdiction over human rights issues. The resolution, an annual event, now goes to the General Assembly for a final vote. Approval is expected, as all 191 UN member nations have seats on both the Third Committee and the General Assembly.
The resolution urges nations to ensure "effective guarantees of freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, including the provision of effective remedies in cases where the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief is violated."
Minister Natan Sharansky criticized the U.N. resolution. "In order for the U.N. to discuss the blazing global hatred [of anti-Semitism]," he said, "it needed to group it with broad generalizations and condemnations of Islamophobia and hatred of Christians."
"Arab countries, which constitute the central source of anti-Semitism today, wanted to demonstrate that there is nothing unique about anti-Semitism," Sharansky said. "As of now, not a single international organization has been able to bring itself to pass a specific resolution against anti-Semitism, and the world continues to act as though anti-Semitism is just a side-effect."
Israel abstained from supporting a similar resolution last year when a specific reference to anti-Semitism was omitted, despite the sharp increase of anti-Jewish attacks around the globe.
This year's resolution mentioned anti-Semitism, alongside Islamophobia and Christianophobia, despite an amendment offered by Pakistan aimed at removing or amending the reference to anti-Semitism. The ammendment, offered on behalf of the 60-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), was defeated 85 to 45 with 29 abstentions. Germany and the Netherlands played a major role in rejecting the OIC's argument.
Zina Kleitman, Israel's representative in the Third Committee, was pleased with the resolution. "This worrying increase in acts of hatred and incitement against Jewish communities, individuals and places of worship, is reprehensible and unjustifiable," she said. "It is a threat to our universal humanity and it demands a universal and urgent response."
Kleitman added that despite explanations offered by the OIC, its motives for seeking to alter the references to anti-Semitism were "as transparent as they [were] repulsive."
"Both the State of Israel and the United Nations were founded on the ashes of the Holocaust," Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said in a statement. "For both of us, the fight against religious intolerance is part of our raison d'etre. To deny that, is to deny our history and endanger our future. This January we will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. We owe it to the victims of the Holocaust, to its survivors and to those who fought and died for their liberation, never to forget its lesson and to be ever vigilant against the scourge of religious intolerance in all its forms, including anti-Semitism."
The resolution on religious intolerance was adopted in a unanimous 177-0 vote by the assembly's social and humanitarian committee, which has jurisdiction over human rights issues. The resolution, an annual event, now goes to the General Assembly for a final vote. Approval is expected, as all 191 UN member nations have seats on both the Third Committee and the General Assembly.
The resolution urges nations to ensure "effective guarantees of freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, including the provision of effective remedies in cases where the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief is violated."
Minister Natan Sharansky criticized the U.N. resolution. "In order for the U.N. to discuss the blazing global hatred [of anti-Semitism]," he said, "it needed to group it with broad generalizations and condemnations of Islamophobia and hatred of Christians."
"Arab countries, which constitute the central source of anti-Semitism today, wanted to demonstrate that there is nothing unique about anti-Semitism," Sharansky said. "As of now, not a single international organization has been able to bring itself to pass a specific resolution against anti-Semitism, and the world continues to act as though anti-Semitism is just a side-effect."