The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith has strongly protested a United Nations Seminar on Palestinian rights as “interference in American affairs.”
In a letter to Javier Perez de Cueller, Secretary General of the UN, Abraham Foxman, associate national director of the ADL, denounced the seminar — the fifth annual session on “the question of Palestine” — as the arrogant attempt by “a group which has contributed nothing toward Middle East peace to mold the policy of America, a nation which has been so instrumental in bringing real progress in the region.”
The seminar was held March 15-19 under the auspices of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. Foxman pointed out that its purpose was clearly set forth at the opening session as gaining recognition for “influencing American policy and public opinion” and developing strategies to counter alleged “Zionist influence.”
Three of the seminar’s seven panels focused on these objectives under such headings as: “Domestic and Strategic influences in the Formation of American and Canadian Policies”; “Evolution of American and Canadian Policies on the Question of Palestine,” and the “Palestine Issue and North American Public Opinion.”
CLAIMS MADE BY THE PANELISTS
Foxman said an observer at the sessions reported that much of the content was anti-Semitic. Among the claims made by the panelists, he said, were such statements as: The church in America is being subverted by “Zionization”; “A Zionist conspiracy controls the media”; and “Zionism requires the perpetuation of anti-Semitism to justify its own racist project.”
According to Foxman, the seminar “glamorized” the Palestine Liberation Organization by picturing it as “a combination social welfare and educational service agency and fraternal group.”
The ADL official told the Secretary General: “It is bad enough that the halls of the UN are filled with PLO bias embodied in the many resolutions and activities surrounding the Palestinian issue. It is intolerable that the UN now seeks to inffect the American public with this propaganda. This is not the mandate of the UN.”
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