Durban II’s challenge to Elie Wiesel and us all

By Rabbi Abraham Cooper

April 22, 2009 (UN Headquarters - Geneva, Switzerland) - In 1938, in Evian, on the French side of Lake Geneva, the world’s democracies convened a meeting to discuss the “Jewish Problem”. Turns out no one wanted Europe’s Jews. By 1945, 6 million Jews were dead, systematically murdered by the Nazi’s Final Solution. Hitler solved his problem.

The United Nations was created to ensure that it would never happen again. But here we were on April 20th, 2009 gathered on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day to hear from Auschwitz Survivor and Nobel Peace laureate, Elie Wiesel. This year the focus was not so much on the legacy of the past, but unlearned lessons that threatened the future. Because on this day, which will go down in infamy, the UN’s anti-racism Durban Review Conference gave the podium to the Holocaust-denying President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man who threatens Israel and the 6 million Jews who live in the Jewish state.

I was at the first Durban Conference in South Africa just before 9/11. Instead of tackling human rights issues, the conference degenerated into an anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-American hate-fest. Jewish leaders there to promote a ‘civil society’ were cursed, jostled and threatened.

This time, many leaders, including President Obama hoped things would be different. But there was one leader- Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper who clearly understood months ago Ahmadinejad’s agenda and announced Canada would boycott. What a shame President Obama and others didn’t follow his lead until the eve of the conference. And while it was a dramatic gesture to see two dozen countries walk out on the Iranian leader’s diatribe, by then it was too late: Ahmadinejad had his propaganda victory to serve him well with his core constituency and others in the Arab and Muslim world.

Elie Wiesel, now 80, led a protest outside of Ahmadinejad’s UN press conference together with Harvard’s Alan Dershowitz and Jewish students. We were there when one of the 180 Iranians brought to Durban II snarled and screamed at Mr. Wiesel, barking “Zion-Nazi, Zion-Nazi” (you can view the video at www.wiesenthal.com or on You Tube). It was a disgusting climax to a day that would have crushed the hopes of a lesser man.

Only history will tell if April 20th, 2009 marked the beginning of the end for the United Nations, or the day the world community finally stood up in defense of liberty.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper is the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading human Rights Agency which is a NGO (non-governmental Organization) at the United Nations. He wrote this from Geneva where he headed the Center’s delegation to the Durban Conference Against Racism.

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