"General Assembly September vote on Palestinian status should be conditioned on prior dismantling of pernicious UN Committee for the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People."

Brussels, 30 June 2011

In a letter to UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, described his experience as the only Jewish NGO attending the Brussels meeting on "The Role of Europe in Advancing Palestinian Statehood and Achieving Peace Between Israelis and Palestinians."

Samuels noted that "this title was nothing but a political euphemism to campaign for the 27 States of the European Union -  and the European Institutions themselves - to endorse the September UN General Assembly vote on a Palestinian unilateral declaration of independence", adding "behind that smokescreen, however, the gathering was yet another 'serial assault' against the State of Israel." 

The letter listed "campaigns that were discussed, resonant of a 'Third Intifada', - calls for mass demonstrations, beginning in July, by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and by support groups in Europe and North  America under the title, 'United for Palestine Independence': -Veiled threats made by delegates e.g. 'this mother of all conflicts can bring violence to all the nations of the world'; 'Palestine will be liberated by a huge anti-apartheid campaign of global civil society'... 'After the vote, we must move from anti-occupation to anti - oppression in a one-state solution'... 'The boycott must be effectively imposed...'" 

The Centre suggested, "perhaps we should not be surprised, as this Brussels meeting -  following similar initiatives in Latin America and Africa -  was organized by the "United Nations Committee for the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People", a monster born in the murky shadows of the notorious 1975 Zionism = Racism resolution, which should have been disbanded with that resolution's repeal in 1991. 

Samuels claimed that "this Committee has remained intact as a magnet for those States and NGO's with a vested interest in perpetuating the conflict, among them those devoted to wiping Israel off the map...Indeed, several are the spoilers of the Durban antisemitic hatefest" 

The letter advised the Secretary-General that his representative opened the meeting with his message, which called for "'a sovereign, viable State of Palestine' from which 'Israel must rollback...encouraging initiatives for Palestinian unity", i.e. with Hamas. 

The Centre lamented that the message "included no mention of terrorism and, in fact, endorsed a designated terrorist organisation on the UN's own watchlist", also stressing that "the meeting showed its true colors by studiously ignoring our proposal for a balanced resolution, calling 'for peace between the Arab State of Palestine alongside the Jewish State of Israel.'" 

Samuels charged that "the very existence of the 'United Nations Committee for the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People'(CEIRPP) continually violates the United Nations Charter...By its delegitimization of the Jewish State, it is a political instrument that threatens a sovereign UN member, impugning its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the Charter 

The Centre urged that "a General Assembly vote on Palestinian status in September be conditioned on the prior dismantling of the pernicious one-sided 'United Nations Committee for the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.'" 

"Such a step would go far in allowing eventual statehood to be consonant with an end to the conflict.", concluded Samuels.