The Syrian delegate at the United Nations headquarters here sharply attacked Israel Monday, accusing it of racism and comparing Israel and Zionism to the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Addressing the U.N. subcommission on human rights, which is meeting here to debate the issue of racial discrimination, the Syrian delegate, Sami Glaiel, claimed that criteria of color, race and religion were the pillars on which both Israel and South Africa were established.
“Both regimes are odious and constitute a crime against humanity,” he declared. He said that while apartheid is aimed at the slavery of blacks, Zionism is aimed at the dispersion of non-Jews and the usurpation of their land.
When the Israeli delegate, Rafael Walden, rejected the Syrian charges and declared that Israel and Zionism are not racist and cannot be linked to South Africa, the Syrian diplomat replied that the United Nations already adopted a resolution equating Zionism with racism in 1975.
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