UN envoy Nikolay Mladenov denounces anti-Semitism, says global body committed to fighting it.
03/20/2018
Nikolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, spoke on Monday at the 6th Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism being held in Jerusalem.
“The most appropriate today to open this forum is to have three very clear and simple messages and to address them to all who fans the flames of hatred, terror and war around the world,” the envoy said.
“The State of Israel is here to stay. It is the home of the Jewish people and in the modern context, denying Israel’s right to exist is anti-Semitism at its worst,” stated Mladenov.
The Holocaust, he said, did not occur in a vacuum. “The United Nations believes that we have an obligation. An obligation not only to remember the boundless evil that led to the attempt to systematically eliminate the Jewish people, to stand up, confront hatred and xenophobia everywhere we see it.”
The UN envoy warned against incidents of anti-Semitism and racism that are occurring today in both Europe and the United States.
“But let’s look closer to home. We must denounce anti-Semitism here in the region. In too many societies across the Middle East, demonization of Jews continues unabated,” said Mladenov. “Many have often spoken of how a peaceful, two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would pave the way towards resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, and they are right. Yet at the same time, an enduring peace must be based on the acceptance that Jews, Christians and Muslims all have a historic and religious connection to this land and to the city.”
He denounced attempts to rewrite the history of Holocaust and downplay the complicity of those who participated in it, calling those attempts “concerning”.
“We all have a choice. We have a choice to look away from the problem of anti-Semitism, xenophobia, intolerance, or confront them. We all have a responsibility to educate our children, long before their young hearts and minds are poisoned by propaganda,” said Mladenov, who added, “To this end, I assure you that the United Nations and Secretary General Guterres personally are committed to continue working to educate people around the world about the horrors of the past and how we can all contribute to ensuring that they are never forgotten and never repeated.”