Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon: UN Must Stop Being Platform for Antisemitism and Misuse of Holocaust

Speaking at the UN's observance ceremony marking the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust on January 27, 2017, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon called upon the UN to condemn antisemitism and misappropriation of the Holocaust by UN officials and UN member states.

In his words:

"If we are not careful, then we run the risk of allowing the Holocaust to be misappropriated or even cheapened.

Recently, we have seen this happen all too often, including by Member States of the United Nations. The same memories, and the values of tolerance and acceptance that we teach our children, are now being misused. Under the guise of human rights intolerance, we are witnessing a growing phenomenon where Israel is subject time and again to false analogies that can be only blamed on hatred and intolerance.

Two months ago, the Permanent Representative of Ecuador stood here at this very podium and unabashedly compared Zionism with Nazism. He compared the national movement of the Jewish people, the realization of thousands of years of yearning for our homeland, to the most vile and hate-filled movement the world has ever seen. The worst part of that episode was the silence during his hateful statement. The representatives of the world who were gathered in this hall sat and said nothing. The nations of the world sat silently and did not protest as the state of the Jewish people was singled out and libeled.

When Member States do not even react while ambassadors are allowed to poison the UN, something within the institution itself has gone wrong. Sadly, it is not the only example of the misuse of the sacred memory of the Holocaust. During a meeting of the Security Council, the most powerful UN institution, the Representative of Venezuela accused Israel of committing, 'A final solution of the Palestinians.' Such hate. Such lies...

The UN does not have an internal mechanism to prevent such misconduct. We, the Member States, are that mechanism. It is our responsibility not to allow anti-Semitism and abuse of the memory of the Holocaust to seep unchallenged into the language and actions in the UN. The sad truth, ladies and gentlemen, is that anti-Semitic language, and even action, has even been adopted by senior UN officials and agencies. An Under-Secretary-General had the nerve to say that Israel's existence as the world's sole Jewish state is equivalent to the crimes against humanity committed in the 20th century, and the UN remained silent.

This past March, the ironically named Human Rights Council-it's not here, it's in Geneva-voted to create a database, a blacklist of Jewish businesses operating in parts of Jerusalem and Israel. As during other periods of our history, dark forces wish to label our businesses, our livelihood, so that we can be delegitimized and boycotted. Once again, the UN is silent.

Today, I stand here as Israel's Permanent Representative and say proudly that blacklists and anti-Semitic smears will not defeat us. Israel will continue to flourish as a strong, independent, and free democracy, and the Jewish people will continue to build and grow as we have done for thousands of years..."