The United States government has sharply protested to the United Nations the anti-Semitic remarks of an Arab Nazi collaborator who declared at a Human Rights conference last December in Geneva that Hitler had reason to murder the Jews and that Jews are instructed to drink the blood of non-Jews each year or face damnation.
The American protest was made in a confidential letter from the United States Mission to the UN to Kurt Herndl, Assistant Secretary General in charge of the Human Rights Center in Geneva. A copy of the letter, dated March 13, was obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The U.S. demanded in its letter an explanation from the UN as to how such an “outrageous and reprehensible” statement could be made in a UN forum and how a Nazi collaborator and anti-Semite “was allowed to participate in a United Nations seminar designed to promote religious tolerance.”
The U.S. letter referred to the seminar on “The Encouragement of Understanding and Respect in Matters Relating to Freedom of Religion and Belief,” held in Geneva from December 3 to 14 under UN sponsorship.
CONTENT OF THE REMARKS
The anti-Semitic remarks were made by Maaruf Al-Dawalibi, Counselor to the Royal Court in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. In a statement at the seminar on December 5, he said he had read at least 16 French books during his studies in Paris during World War II, which proved that the Talmud teaches that “If a Jew does not drink every year the blood of a non-Jewish man, then he will be damned for eternity.”
Therefore, the Saudi representative continued, each year Jews kidnap and slaughter a non-Jewish boy. Al-Dawalibi also asserted that Jewish doctors accept non-Jewish patients only for medical experiments. It is no wonder, he concluded, that Hitler and others through the ages wanted to exterminate the Jews.
U.S. LETTER OF PROTEST
“The Saudi participant’s remarks stunned the United States participant in the seminar and elicited his sharp rejection,” the U.S. said in its letter of protest. “The United States believes it is important that the UN Center for Human Rights, as sponsor of this seminar, repudiate these objectionable remarks by Mr. Al-Dawalibi and ensure that the records of the December seminar do not give them any formal standing.”
The letter added that the U.S. has learned “from credible public sources” that Al-Dawalibi “was a collaborator with the Hitler regime during World War II,” and spent the war years “as the personal secretary to Nazi collaborator Amin Al-Husseini, the former Mufti of Jerusalem.” Al-Dawalibi, the letter added, “was a known anti-Semite and served as an informer for Hitler’s security police.”
The letter concluded: “The United States government requests a full explanation from the Center for Human Rights on how an individual of Mr. Al-Dawalibi’s background could have been allowed to participate in a United Nations seminar designed to promote religious tolerance. We would also like to know why the Center and the seminar’s chairman did not immediately disassociate themselves from Al-Dawalibi’s remark. We urge that in the future activities of the Center such unfortunate episodes are not repeated.”
The JTA has learned that a few days ago the U.S. Mission to the UN received a reply from Herndl in Geneva. Herndl said that he agrees that every effort should be made to avoid such incidents in the future, noting that episodes like that give the UN bad publicity. He did not respond, however, directly, to the demands made by the U.S. government in its letter.
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.
