Comments by David G. Littman, NGO Representative to the United Nations in Geneva: Association for World Education (AWE) and the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) :
The following joint statement was drafted & delivered by DGL for WUPJ on 16 March:
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WORLD UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM
United Nations Human Rights Council -13th session (1-26 March 2010)
Statement by David G. Littman – Tuesday (am) 16 March 2010 (22nd meeting)
President (Chair): Ambassador Alex Van Meeuwen (Belgium)
Item 4: Human Rights situations that require the Council’s attention
Sir, there is a serious human rights principle that requires the Council’s urgent attention now.
We would remind all delegates of that fateful period of appeasement in the 1930s when the League of Nations closed down soon after the new grandiose Palais des Nations had opened. While fear stalked the streets of Europe, on the stage of history, a mad leader (Führer) was allowed to run amok.
One man was not blinded by duplicity or fear and he spoke out for freedom at that moment of truth. In a 28 June 1939 speech [Carlton Club, London], Winston Churchill used a metaphoric image that is pertinent today when related to a controversial president who constantly reiterates – while seeking nuclear power – that another Member State should be “wiped off the map”. And there is another OIC leader-for-life who has called for our host country to be split into pieces – and then went further with a ghoulish call for a Jihad against Switzerland – and all this in defiance of the UN Charter – article 2:4
All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state or in any manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
Who knows how many demented Jihadist bombers might be tempted by these religious-sounding calls to seek ‘martyrdom’ – and an irresistible heavenly reward – by trying to blow up the UN corridors of power. Churchill’s words on Hitler relate to this mania which requires the Council’s urgent attention:
Is he going to blow up the world or not? The world is a very heavy thing to blow up! An extraordinary man at a pinnacle of power may create a great explosion, and yet the civilised world may remain unshaken. The enormous fragments and splinters may clatter down upon his own head and destroy him…but the world will go on.
As threats against Member States are also an attack on the human right to life, the Human Rights Council has a sacred duty to condemn such unacceptable calls to Jihad, which are in total violation of the Purposes of the UN Charter and of the International Bill of Human Rights. They should be severely reprimanded by this Council and by other UN bodies and persons.
Silence here & now would make of us all the accomplices of terrorism and tyranny.
Thank you Mr President.