Mrs. Leah Rabin accused the United Nations yesterday of “creating problems and broadening existing disputes” instead of adhering to its original purpose “to aid peace and resolve conflicts,”
Mrs. Rabin, addressing more than 1000 delegates at the 50th anniversary convention of the Pioneer Women here, said the anti-Zionist draft resolution adopted by the General Assembly’s Third Committee last week, “has no practical effect or implication. We (Israel) are a sovereign, independent country and no resolution can ever change that fact.”
She denounced the draft equating Zionism with racism and racial discrimination, asserting that “Zionism, far from being racist, is a movement that sprang up among Jews as an answer to various forms of racism affecting Jews. To call it racist is a perversion. It is tantamount to saying the truth are lies. Any anti-Zionist resolutions in this day and age, in the UN or elsewhere, are nothing more than undisguised anti-Semitism wearing a new garb,”
FEELS NEW HOPE AND COURAGE
Mrs. Rabin observed that “While in the Middle East a new and hopeful chapter on the road to peace is being written in the form of the Egyptian-Israeli interim agreement, the UN which was set up to aid peace and resolve conflicts is, instead, creating problems and broadening existing disputes.”
The wife of Israel’s Premier spoke of her experiences at the International Women’s Year sessions in Mexico City last June and described her feeling of isolation there which she likened to the feeling of Israel’s delegation at the UN. She added, however, that on her visit to West Germany this year with Premier Rabin, when a German military band played Hatikvah and the German army saluted the Israel flag, she felt new hope and courage.
Mrs. Rabin, a leader of Moetzet Hapoalot, the Israeli sister organization of Pioneer Women, lauded the Pioneer Women for their achievements in helping working women in Israel by providing day care centers, vocational training programs and immigrant absorption projects. She pointed out that thousands of Arab women in Israel have received vocational and other assistance since the establishment of the Jewish State.
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