Not discouraged by the fact that the committee of the U.N. General Assembly dealing with social, humanitarian and cultural matters yesterday rejected, by a vote of 82 or 12, the American-Brazilian move to include condemnation of anti-Semitism in the draft of the U.N. pact on elimination of racial discrimination, representatives of a number of countries insisted today at the committee that anti-Semitism should have been specifically condemned.
The debate on the text of the draft convention continued today with the delegate of Brazil voicing strong protest against the fact that he had not been allowed before yesterday’s voting to explain why his delegation joined the United States in cosponsoring an amendment condemning anti-Semitism.
Asserting that Brazil had “no ulterior political motives in mind,” the Brazilian said that his Government “deems it necessary to condemn anti-Semitism because it is a disease and the fountainhead of Nazism.” Brazil’s sole concern, he said, was the wiping out of this “disease” in order to help achieve “peace in our time and in all time.”
A strong statement attacking anti-Semitism was also voiced by Belgium, another of the 12 voting against shutting off debate on the anti-Semitism issue. Among those who maintained a sharp stand against anti-Semitism today were the delegations of the Netherlands, Britain, Canada, Bolivia, and Finland. Ambassador Michael S. Comay, Israel’s permanent representative here and also one of the 12, replied forcefully to charges made in the Committee by Arabs who had accused Israel of racialism.
(The World Zionist Organization executive issued an appeal yesterday “to Jewish masses everywhere,” to Jewish organizations throughout the world, and primarily to Zionist organizations to make strong protests against the “calumnious vilifying” proposal by the Soviet Union at the United Nations seeking to link Zionism with anti-Semitism and Nazism. The WZC executive emphasized that the Jewish people’s “liberation movement was the principal victim of Nazism.”)
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.
