“The root cause of the Gaza tragedy is not mentioned in the
Goldstone/Gaza Report to the UN Human Rights Council: the genocidal
Hamas Charter that teaches children hatred and death.”
Comments by David G. Littman, NGO Representative to the United Nations in Geneva for the Association for World Education (AWE) and the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ):
This is the promised follow-up to my last article.
Two weeks ago, I delivered three oral statements to the 12th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva (all reproduced below): on the Gaza/Goldstone Report and Hamas Charter (item 7); violence against women (item 8); Defamation of Judaism and Jews (item 9). After I had finished speaking for the WUPJ the 1st time, the HRC president declared (not on webcast):
Before moving to the next speaker, may I call upon everyone to stick to the agreed practice and link their statement to the item under discussion; clearly, part of the previous statement are extraneous to the item under discussion and out of order; this should not be repeated.
After I spoke for AWE the same morning under item 8, the president made similar remarks, but without saying, “out of order.” This concerned ‘violence against women’ – it seems that I
should have referred also to the ‘ Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action’, not only to:
Integrating the human rights of women throughout the UN system – so I was informed! Toward the end of the day, I was told by the NGO liaison officer that one of the statements would be removed from the official report of the meeting because the president had used the expression “out of order”- later, I learned that it was the statement on Gaza. As this ‘decision’ seemed discriminatory, I prepared a 10 point letter to the president, Belgian Ambassador Alex Van Meeuwen – also reproduced below – to which there has been no response after twelve days. At an NGO meeting after the plenum, in reply to a question, the president stated that he had heard me refer to Iran, which was not related to the subject of item 7; I replied that I had only referred to Iran in the Hamas-Gaza context that was the subject of WUPJ‘s statement.I was informed yesterday that the Secretary of the Human Rights Council [Eric Tistounet] has agreed to maintain the webcast of our oral intervention on the UN website and the verbatim version of this intervention on the HRC extranet, but with an asterisk* indicating that the statement was ruled partially out of order: “consequently, your statement will not be included in the report of the 12th session of the Human Rights Council.”
In a rapid reply, I asked whether, because the President used the expression “out of order”, in relation to “parts of the previous statement”, signified that his ‘ruling’ was correct. I asked:
We maintain that an NGO, like any other representative, is entitled to an explanation on such a serious matter and my 10 point letter to the President, dated 2 October (by fax, email, and post), is very comprehensive (…) Do the ‘rules and regulations’ imply that should the President make a ‘slip of the tongue’ when speaking he cannot retract the words “out of order” which must automatically be implemented by the Secretariat?
Hopefully, I shall obtain a reply to this question from the friendly president at the 12th Special Session of the HRC– requested by the Palestinian Authority with the usual ‘sponsors’ – and scheduled for October 15-16. Israel’s Foreign Minister Abba Eban had this to say forty years ago: “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” (The Times, London, 17 December 1970) It will be interesting to see what NGOs will be forbidden to say at the Special Session – and what will be ruled ‘out of order’ as a result of pressures from OIC countries.
* * * * *
WORLD UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM
UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL: 12th Session (14 Sept. – 2 October 2009)
STATEMENT by Representative David G. LITTMAN – Wednesday (am) 30 SeptemberUN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict – Report (item 7)
* * * * *
http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/conferences/unhrc/twelfth/hrc090930am1-eng.rm?start=00:32:56&end=00:35:45 (2¾ min.- UN webcast – RealPlayer)* * * * *
It
is remarkable that in the 452 pages of the Mission’s Gaza Report
[A/HRC/12/48] and that of the High Commissioner [A/HRC/12/37] there is
not a single mention of the root cause of the Gaza tragedy – the 1988
Hamas Charter: a Charter that calls for Jews to be killed and Israel to
be eliminated; a Charter which, like Hitler, quotes a crude forgery, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,
inspiring a terrorist regime to systematic-ally teach a culture of hate
and death to Gaza children and adults in schools, the press and by TV.Iran
provides military and economic support for Hamas in line with its
Charter’s aims – and with President Ahmadinejad’s repeated calls for
Israel to be wiped off the map, in contravention of Article 2/4 of the
UN Charter. Last week, he reiterated his negation of the Shoah and then
shamed the UN General Assembly.1In his 1924 preface to Mein Kampf,
Hitler explained: “A doctrine can only keep its uniformity if it has
been fixed in writing forever”. Few took Hitler seriously, preferring
to sleep through the 1930s. The Hamas Charter fits this Nazi-like
pattern and its preface quotes Muslim Brotherhood founder, Hassan
al-Banna: “Israel will exist and continue to exist until Islam will
obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”The
Charter which we have been denouncing here since the 1989 Commission
[45th session, 31 January 1989] goes further to include all Jews &
Judaism: “Israel, Judaism & Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim
people. ‘Let the cowards never sleep.'” [Article 28]. Article 7 quotes
a ‘saying’ [hadith] widely preached in sermons by clerics,
calling on Muslims to fight and kill Jews;2 Article 8 is the slogan of
Hamas, from the Muslim Brotherhood, inspiring ‘Jihadist Martyrdom
Bombers’ worldwide. Fuller details are to be found in our written
statement. 3 & 4 & *We solemnly call on the High Commissioner, the Gaza Fact Finding
Mission and this Human Rights Council to act now by unequivocally
condemning the Genocidal Hamas Charter: a defamation of religion, a
blueprint for murder and a ‘direct and public incitement to commit
genocide’- punishable under articles 3 and 4 of the 1948 Genocide
Convention. To remain silent now would speak volumes. We also call on
the newly elected Director-General of UNESCO to
insist on the replacement of this well-documented culture of hate and
death in schools and TV by UN human rights education in reality, not
simply: “relayed to the Mission”. [Gaza Report, p. 408, §1898]
——
Notes:1. “Holocaust is a false claim, a fairy tale, used as a pretext for crimes against humanity.”
2.
“HAMAS aspires to implement Allah’s promise, whatever time it may take.
The Prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: ‘The Hour [Day of
Judgment] will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill
them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O
Muslim! O Abdallah [slave of Allah], there is a Jew behind me, come and
kill him. This will not apply to the Gharqad tree, which is a Jewish
tree.'”3. “Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the
Koran its Constitution; Jihad is its path, and death for the sake of
Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.” (Article 8).This ‘saying’ – from
the 1928 Charter of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a wing,
according to its article 2 – is recorded from al-Bukhari and Muslim,
both considered by serious Islamic scholars as highly reliable sources
for the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad.]4. After his release
from an Israeli prison in October 1997, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, founder
and spiritual head of Hamas, declared that Israel must “disappear from
the map.” He added: “We have an aim and an enemy, and we shall continue
our Jihad against the enemy; a nation without a Jihad is a nation
without a purpose.”
——————————-
* See our written statement: The 1988 Genocidal Charter of HAMAS: an evil legacy for ‘Jihadist– Martyrdom’ bombers: E/CN.4/2003/NGO/226; and also written statements: A/HRC/S-1/NGO/4 (2006) and: A/HRC/S-9/NGO/3 (2009).* * * * *
ASSOCIATION FOR WORLD EDUCATION
UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL: 12th Session (14 September – 2 October 2009)
STATEMENT by Representative David G. LITTMAN – Wednesday (am) 30 SeptemberFollow-up to and implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action:
Integrating the human rights of women throughout the UN system (item 8)
* * * * *
http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/conferences/unhrc/twelfth/hrc090930am1-eng.rm?start=02:35:53&end=02:38:30 (2½ min. – UN webcast – RealPlayer)* * * * *
Since the early 1990s we have been addressing, in oral and written
statements, widespread violence against women daily – regularly
reported in the media – which requires firm action by this Council:1. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM);
2. So-called “Honour Killings”;
3. Death by stoning for so-called ‘adultery’ and public flogging for alleged misconduct;
4. Disfiguration of women by acid;
5. Marriage of female children – as young as 8 or 9.As we have insisted over the years, the traditional practice of FGM is
slowly creeping into Europe despite State laws condemning this barbaric
mutilation of young girls and women. Even here in Switzerland, the
figure is approaching the 10,000 mark, with nearly 1,500 mutilations in
Geneva alone.The case of Egypt is symbolic. State legislation since 1996 against FGM now carries a jail punishment of from 3 months to 2 years, yet the UNICEF annual figure for Egypt remains at 96%. An edict [fatwa]
on the website of Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, President of the International
Union for Muslim Scholars, is unlikely to change this ghastly toll;
only an unambiguous ruling [fatwa] from Al-Azhar might help do so.1Time does not allow us to speak on the other grim subjects mentioned, which occur in many countries.
We
shall conclude by referring to the courageous words of Iranian Noble
Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi – here in Geneva last year. She
strongly denounced the fact that in Iran a girl is considered an adult
and liable to punishment, even execution, at 9 and a boy at 15. She
rejected the justifications of cultural relativism in Iran and
elsewhere for such aberrations. 2 Marriage of girls as young as 9 is
legal and common in Iran and in other States, 3 even at 8, as is
enshrined in an old Yemeni tribal expression: “Give me a girl of 8, and
I can give you a guarantee” for a good marriage, as quoted in the New York Times.4“Integrating
the human rights of women throughout the UN system” in every respect
requires this Council to face these realities and act firmly on all
such traditional, social and religious customs – for them to be brought
into harmony with the UN Covenants.
——————————
1. www.ikhwanweb.com/print.php?id=19661; also www.ikhwanweb.com/print.php?id=17254
2. Le Temps, 10 June 1908
3. http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA50209
4. Robert F. Worth, “Tiny Voices defy Child Marriage in Yemen, New York Times, 29 June 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/world/middleeast/29marriage.html?r=1&scp=1&sq=%22Give%20me%20a%20
girl%20of%208,%20and%20I%20can%20give%20you%20a%20guarantee%22%20for%20a%20good%20marriage
%20(Ye men)&st=cse
——————————–
* See written statement: Traditional or Customary Practices / Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/NGO/27* * * * *
ASSOCIATION FOR WORLD EDUCATION
WORLD UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM
UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL: 12th Session (14 September – 2 October 2009)
JOINT STATEMENT by Representative David G. LITTMAN – Wed. (pm) 30 September
Racism, Racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance (item 9)
* * * * *
http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/conferences/unhrc/twelfth/hrc090930pm2-eng.rm?start=01:04:23&end=01:06:39 (2 min. – UN website – RealPlayer)* * * * *
[Passages in square brackets were only for documentation – not to be pronounced in the 2 minutes]On reading the Report of the Special Rapporteur [A/HRC/12/38 by Githu
Muigai], we were not at all surprised that it refers at great length to
“Islamophobia”, adding anti-Arabism for good measure, but only refers
in passing to Christianophobia & Judeophobia /Antisemitism. One
example: Although we delivered factual documentation to all four
appropriate Special Rapporteurs and to the High Commissioner on an
egregious case of ‘defamation of religion’, as well as religious and
racial hatred that was propagated outside this ‘Alliance of
Civilizat-ions’ Room on the 19 Dec. 2008, there has been no
condemnation or reaction. Our written statement is available. 1 The
question any independent person might ask is: why such silence?[The
books were available during the whole day’s event, organised by the
Organization of the Islamic Conference on 19 December 2008, outside the
newly inaugurated “Alliance of Civilizations” Room – “On the Occasion
of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.
Inside Room XXI the OIC Secretary General and senior UN dignitaries spoke at The OIC Inter-institutional Forum on Universal Shared Values: Challenges & New Paradigms, which was described as: “Under the High Patronage of H.E. Mr. Abdoulaye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal, Chairman of the 11th OIC Summit And the Effective Participation of Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the OIC,
Mr. Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director General of the UN Office in Geneva,
Mr. Martin I. Uhomoibhi, Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN
and President of the Human Rights Council and Mrs. Navanethem Pillay,
High Commissioner for HR.“]Our text contains a quote from one of the two books [Protection of Islamic and Christian Holy Sites in Palestine (2007) by ISESCO –
the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It
should suffice to give the flavour of this rampant, well-documented
culture of Judeophobia / Antisemitism.[“President of the Jenine
Information Centre, Jenine, State of Palestine” [Adnane Ibrahim Hassan
Al Subah, “Role of Palestinian Civil Society in the Protection of Holy
Sites” (pp. 252-75)] states with great conviction:“Enemies
of the Almighty: Jews are the enemies of Allah, the enemies of faith
and of the worship of Allah. (…) People familiar with the Torah, which
we believe to have been distorted, know the extent of the evils they
attribute to their prophets, corruption, treachery, fornication or
approval of it.”]Mr. President, we again call for a
universal condemnation of those blatant defamations of Judaism and the
constant demonization of Jews in ISESCO publications and in the media of several OIC States, including Egypt on TV programmes. ISESCO is the cultural wing of the OIC and its 57 UN Member States. A higher standard is to be expected from an international body with close ties to UNESCO since 1981.This grave matter merits urgent action from the new Director-General of UNESCO.
It is high time for the international community to act firmly against
this widespread, ongoing culture of hate, propagated in the Arab/Muslim
world against Judaism and Jews. We look to the Council and the OIC –
co-sponsors since 1999 of the ‘defamation of religions’ resolution) to
act now. And we shall once more reiterate our simple plea for this
Council – hopefully, with the OIC in the vanguard – to condemn all calls to kill in the name of God or religion, any religion.Sir,
I shall conclude with the words of Hamlet: “Why I will fight [with him]
upon this theme until my eyelids can no longer wag … Let Hercules do
what he may, the cat will mew and dog will have his day.” (Act 5, Sc.
1, 289-90 /316).[Although the speaker’s statement was available
to the Chairman and the Secretary, the microphone was switched off,
without any warning to the speaker, at the word ‘Hercules’ (at 2 min. 8
sec.), either by Vice-President Carlos Portalis or Secretary Eric
Tistounet; the rest is garbled: 5 words missing, then 3 are heard,
after a pause [‘cat will mew’], but not the last 5 words. Two NGOs were allowed as long as 2 min. 40 sec. – the Human Rights Committee of Qatar and the Association of World Citizens]
——————————-
1. Defamation of Judaism and Jews by ISESCO (OIC): 60th UDHR Anniversary at the UN: A/HRC/10/NGO/29* * * * *
WORLD UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM
WUPJ c/o BEITH-GIL – 12, Quai du Seujet – 1201 Genève 1H.E. Ambassador Alex Van Meeuwen
Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Belgium Permanent Mission to the United Nations
Rue de Moillebeau 58
Case postale 473. 1211 Geneva 19
(sent by email, fax and by post)2 October 2009
Dear Ambassador Van Meeuwen,Re: Oral statement by David G. Littman for WUPJ on 30 September (item 7: Gaza Conflict)
In
order to clarify our position on this sensitive subject following
several brief exchanges on Wednesday, I feel it would be useful if I
confirmed certain facts and explained our viewpoint.When we spoke at the NGO meeting
on Wednesday following the plenum, you told me that the case would be
‘frozen’ until a discussion on the substance had taken place. This was
still the situation yesterday as I understood from Mr. Dawson, and the WUPJ statement remains on the extranet and the webcast.Allow me to make the following 10 points:
1) On Wednesday morning, 30 September, I delivered an oral statement on behalf of WUPJ, titled: ‘UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict – Report (item 7)’.
2)
A little less than an hour before speaking, I gave 25 copies of my
statement to the Secretariat “for the interpreters”, leaving ample time
for copies to reach you and the Secretary on the podium.3) When
we spoke the first time at about 5:00pm, and then again later, you
stated that you had not received a copy of my statement and had to rely
on what you had heard me say. I was surprised, gave you a copy,
explaining that I had given 25 copies to the Secretariat an hour before
I spoke.4) After I had finished reading my text (I wish to thank you for being so generous with me, as with other NGOs,
over the time limit; this influenced me to read more slowly than
usual), you made some remarks in which you are reported as having said,
at one moment, that my statement was ‘out of order’. This cannot easily
be checked as your comments are not recorded on the webcast.5)
I enclose my oral statement, as delivered by me verbatim; I have
checked it against the UN webcast, to which I am providing the link
(below). Also enclosed is our detailed written statement,
which provides fuller details confirming our arguments on the relevance of the Hamas Charter.6) At the NGO meeting
that evening, I expressed our viewpoint on this matter with two
questions. You replied that you hadn’t received my statement before; it
was not conceptualised on the agenda subject; and that I had spoken of
Iran which you said was not related to the subject under debate.7)
In response to your remarks, I referred to the statement’s
introduction: “It is remarkable that in the 452 pages of the Mission’s
Gaza Report, and that of the High Commissioner, there is not a single
mention of the root of the Gaza tragedy – the 1988 Hamas Charter; a
Charter that calls for Jews to be killed and Israel to be eliminated…”
Indeed, this is a surprising omission in the two Reports; such a grave
issue cannot be considered off the subject under debate, under item 7.8)
Then come 3 lines (out of 23) on Iran that refer to the Iranian links
with Hamas and the negation by President Ahmadinejad of the Shoah at
the General Assembly. My statement was not ‘on Iran’, as you said at
the NGO meeting, but simply mentioned total Iranian support for Hamas in context.9)
The refusal by the Commission, the Council and other UN bodies to
condemn the genocidal Hamas Charter since 1989 should not become a
justification for this blueprint for murder to be treated as a taboo
subject, especially since Hamas became the official Government in Gaza.10) In theses circumstances, the World Union for Progressive
Judaism feels strongly that the statement that I delivered on their
behalf should not be considered ‘out of order’. We feel sure that the
words you used (‘out of order’) were not intended to remove our
statement from the HRC record, and I
therefore ask you to rectify this misunderstanding with the Secretariat
after your proposed discussion on this matter. As HRC President, your decision on what you intended is vital.Please
feel free to contact me. I would willingly come to Geneva for a meeting
with you – and others – if this were desirable. I do believe that it is
important that this minor matter does not spin out of control.Yours respectfully,
David G. LittmanHistorian
Representative to the UNO in Geneva
World Union for Progressive Judaism
———–
cc. NGO liaison Officers: Mr. Tsatsu Dawson and Ms. Elena Kountouri-Tapiero
———-
Enc. World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ).
Oral statement as delivered verbatim by DGL (item 7) on 30 September 2009.
UN Webcast link to WUPJ statement as delivered by DGL (item 7) on 30 September:
http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/conferences/unhrc/twelfth/hrc090930am1-eng.rm?start=00:32:56&end=00:35:45