Six Nations Seek Deletion of Term ‘anti-semitism’ from Anti-bias Draft

Five Afro-Asian nations and Byelorussia today opposed inclusion of the term “anti-Semitism” in the draft resolution on the elimination of religious discrimination now under study by the Committee on Social Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs of the General Assembly. The five countries are Kuwait, Mali, Pakistan, Somalia and Iraq.

The Kuwait delegate, F. Sayegh, alleged that “Israel intends to exploit this reference to anti-Semitism to silence all criticism of its actions.” He was backed up by the Byelorussian delegate, V. Loshchinin, who said that Israel’s willingness to substitute “anti-Judaism” for “anti-Semitism” in order to meet objections on the committee was a “trick” to drag in the concept of the superiority of the Jewish religion.”