The Leadership Conference of National Jewish Women’s Organizations said in a message to President Carter that it was “deeply gratified” that the U.S. had voted against a resolution in the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly endorsing the “Program of Action” adopted at the world conference of the United Nations Decade for Women in Copenhagen last July. There had been reports earlier that the U.S. was under pressure to reverse its rejection of the program when it comes before the UN General Assembly for official adoption.
Despite the many positive aspects of the Program, the U.S. along with Canada, Australia and Israel voted against it in Copenhagen for its equation of Zionism with racism and its legitimization of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Program calls for the eradication of the “evils” of Zionism racism, imperialism and neo-colonialism, and for economic assistance to Palestinian women inside and outside territories occupied by Israel in cooperation and consultation with the PLO.
In a letter to the White House, Leona Chanin, chairwoman of the Leadership Conference, declared that in Copenhagen the U.S. “properly opposed the action program because it reflected the infamous Zionism-is-racism equation adopted by the General Assembly five years ago this month. The cynical politicization and flagrant abuse of United Nations agencies and conferences by the Arab-Soviet-Third World bloc in behalf of the terrorist PLO continues to erode the already diminishing credibility of the United Nations system.
“We commend you for the Administration’s leadership role in opposing this latest abuse of the United Nations and for recognizing that the true needs of women are subverted by the effort to exploit the United Nations Decade for Women for partisan purposes.”
CORRECTION: An article in the Nov. 6 Daily Bulletin reported that incumbent Rep. Paul Findley (R. III.) received 77 percent of the vote in Illinois Nov. 4. However, David Robinson, the Jewish Democrat who opposed Findley in the election, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Monday that Findley had received only 55 percent of the vote and that he himself had received 45 percent of the vote. Robinson added that he ran 15 points ahead of the Democratic ticket in Illinois.
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.
