Vernon Walters, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, expressed optimism Monday night that the efforts to rescind the 1975 UN General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism will eventually be successful. But he made it clear that more time is needed to achieve this goal.
Speaking with reporters at the Pierre Hotel, where he was attending the annual dinner of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, Walters said: “I don’t believe that we can rescind that infamous resolution today — but we are certainly on our way.” He likened the resolution to apartheid, stating: “This is a form of apartheid by itself.”
Walters said that he sent this year, as he did last year, a letter to UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar protesting the anti-Zionist resolution and demanding that it be abolished. In his speech before the UN General Assembly two weeks ago, President Reagan sharply denounced the resolution.
Israeli diplomats at the UN told the JTA that although many countries which voted in 1975 for the resolution would vote against it today, there is still no majority among UN members to rescind the resolution.
The annual award of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation was presented during the dinner by Rabbi Arthur Schncier, president of the Foundation, to Dr. Rong Yiren, chairperson of the China International Trust and Investment Corporation, and American businessman Arthur Ross.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
