Congress has adopted a joint resolution condemning the 1975 United Nations General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism. The action was hailed today by Bernice Tannenbaum, chairman of the World Zionist Organization-American Section, as a “new phase in the long and difficult struggle to undo the effects of the UN’s calumny against Israel and the Jewish people.”
The joint Congressional resolution–adopted by the Senate last month and the House last week — charged that the UN resolution “encourages anti-Semitism by wrongly associating and equating Zionism with racism.” It termed the UN statement, which was a source of controversy at the UN Women’s Conference in Mexico City in 1975, “a permanent smear on the reputation of the United Nations” and “totally inconsistent with that organization’s declared purposes and principles.”
In the Congressional resolution, the UN resolution was labeled “a form of bigotry.” It urged “the parliaments of all countries which value freedom and democracy” to repudiate it.
Noting that the American delegation to the UN Women’s Conference in Nairobi last month had successfully resisted efforts by the Arab states and Soviet bloc countries to include a condemnation of Zionism in its final document, Tannenbaum stated:
“We are encouraged by these two victories and we will continue our efforts to reject the calumny that defines Zionism as a form of racism at every international forum — and, ultimately, at the UN General Assembly itself.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
