Condemnation of Israel’s policies in the administered territories continued Monday at a meeting of the United Nations’ subcommission on human rights, which is taking place here this week.
Delegates from Great Britain, China, Egypt, Greece and the Palestine Liberation Organization were among those objecting to Israel’s handling of the nearly nine-month-old Palestinian uprising.
Britain’s Claire Palley spoke strongly of the “unbelievable” conduct of Israeli soldiers involved in administering collective punishment.
Jan Tian, a delegate from the People’s Republic of China, called on the subcommission to strengthen its condemnation of Israeli human rights violations and co-ordinate with other U.N. organs to bring pressure on Israel.
Jewish representatives at the meeting bristled at an attack by Greek delegate Erica Irene Daes, who expressed concern over human rights abuses against children in the territories.
Daes compared the plight of a Palestinian girl who lost both her hands to Anne Frank, leading to an objection by David Littman, an observer representing the World Union of Progressive Judaism.
Said Daes, “At least Anne Frank was left with two hands to write her diary.”
The anti-Israel agenda was detoured briefly when Israeli delegate Raphael Walden called on the Soviet Union to officially rehabilitate Jewish intellectuals murdered by Stalinist forces in the early 1950s.
Walden said the Soviets should take steps to compensate for the murders and historical distortion by eliminating discrimination against the country’s Jews.
Walden also expressed his concern for the small Jewish community remaining in Ethiopia.
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.
