Concern over Anti-israel Issues at UN Women’s Conference

In an “Action Alert” concerning the Mid-Decade World Conference of the UN Decade for Women to be held in July in Copenhagen, Eleanor Marvin, president of the International Council of Jewish Women (ICJW), warned its 32 worldwide affiliates that “an item on the economic and social problems of the Palestinian women had been added to the agenda.”

The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) responded immediately, along with several other affiliates including NCJW in Canada and Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) in Norway, in joining forces to fight the use of the upcoming conference as a forum against Israel.

“We’ve sent out an alert to our sections regarding participation in Regional Preparatory Conference and our UN representatives have been alerted said Shirley Leviton, national president of NCJW. “We are working closely with the Leadership Conference of Jewish Women’s Organizations to prevent the politicization” of the Mid-Decode World Conference. Among its measures to counter this anti-Israel campaign, ICJW is asking “that the item on Palestinian women be enlarged to cover the situation in respect to ‘All Refugee Women’.”

In the United States, NCJW representatives have met with White House and State Department officials urging that the U.S. delegation to Copenhagen be instructed to oppose “extraneous matters” at the conference. Such a resolution was adopted last summer in Madison, Wisconsin, at a meeting of the Continuing Committee of the 1977 Houston (Texas) National Women’s Conference, at the request of the Jewish Women’s Caucus.

“Remembering the politicization of the International Women’s Year (IWY) Conference in Mexico City in 1975, where ‘Zionism equals racism’ first reared its ugly head, we must be extremely diligent to do all in our power to prevent a similar turn of events in Copenhagen. Such a development could be most damaging to the interests of Israel in the be most damaging to the interests of Israel in the world community,” said Esther Landa, immediate past president of NCJW who is a member of President Carter’s Advisory Committee for Women. She was also instrumental in forming the Jewish Women’s Caucus at the Houston conference an women.