Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations warned that another Holocaust could begin with the threats of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Gabriela Shalev addressed the U.N. General Assembly at a session convened to discuss and approve a work plan submitted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Program.
“We cannot ignore the troubling reality that today, more than 60 years after the Holocaust, we hear from this very same podium a leader of a member state who calls for the destruction of another member state and denies the Holocaust,” Shalev told the council, referring to the Iranian president’s threats against Israel.
“In this hall, all member states swore ‘never again.’ It is therefore incumbent upon us not merely to condemn such statements, but to act immediately and with resolve against a member state whose leaders declare such despicable and dangerous words. For in the end, the Nazi Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers; that is where it ended. The Nazi Holocaust began with the dangerous words of men.”
Next week the United Nations will mark the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the German pogrom of Nov. 9, 1938.
Shalev praised the international body for its decision three years ago to hold an annual Holocaust memorial and to require the secretary-general to submit an annual report about U.N. activities to teach the lessons of the Holocaust.
Several countries requested the floor to speak, including ambassadors and representatives from the United States, Russia, Canada and Austria.
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