Center Field: Ahmadinejad's antics, the UN's perversity

DURBAN DIARY

Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University and the author of Why I Am A Zionist: Israel Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today. He is attending the Durban Review conference as an observer.

"The UN really is a beautiful thing," I thought as I waited to pass through security at UN headquarters in Geneva. I was standing in a living, breathing poster for multiculturalism, amid delegates of different colors, from different cultures, representing different countries. My reverie was interrupted when the security guards pulled aside one delegate just ahead of me from an Arab country. Emblazoned on the folder he used to carry his papers was the slogan ZIONISM IS RACISM, with a swastika added for good measure.

This, alas, is the reality of the modern UN. The great betrayal comes from hijacking noble ideals as a masquerade to obscure harsh hatred.

Casually walking around with a 'Zionism is Racism' folder reflects an identity of negation, built around hate, rather than around something positive. This is modern Palestinian nationalism's great tragedy - and crime.

Indulging the desire for destruction rather than seeking something constructive curdles the national soul - and prevents compromise. The result is the movement's pornographic commitment to violence - for effect - and an ugliness so toxic and, surprisingly, so epidemic, it poisons noble gatherings including this Durban Conference. The admirable desire to fight racism, xenophobia, and discrimination becomes derailed. Underlying the perversion is a refusal to understand that rights begin with mutual recognition of rights for ourselves and for others, for those we like and those we don't.

While the UN is world headquarters for producing this one-sided farce, many of Israel's enemies are too honest to stick to the script. Just as Hamas failed to learn Yasser Arafat's lessons about lying to the world and keeps its anti-Semitic charter calling for Israel's destruction, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance on the first day of the Durban Review conference shows the modern UN's perversity. Yesterday, at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy we learned that Iran's commitment to fighting discrimination includes the death penalty for homosexuals and torture for dissidents, let alone the fact that Ahmadinejad has endorsed the destruction of two member states of the United Nations, Israel and the United States. Today, we had a chance to see Ahmadinejad in action.

Like all good demagogues, Ahmadinejad is clever. He knows how to work his audience. He guaranteed himself top coverage and a first spot in the speakers' rostrum, ahead of a clump of deputy ministers and foreign ministers. No other head of state spoke today. He brought star power - and excitement - into otherwise tedious proceedings. Moreover, he fed the crowd red meat. He started by invoking the prophets, including Abraham, Jesus - and the final one - Mohammed. He earned applause from the General Assembly delegates by denouncing the Security Council as an imperialist carryover from World War II. More broadly, he blamed America, capitalism, and (if you listened carefully) liberal values for today's economic crisis.

Of course, his speech centered on calling Zionism the personification of racism. Ahmadinejad's speech can be studied as a classic anti-Semitic specimen, attributing to Jews (although he uses the word Zionism) disproportionate power and importance, adding a dash of Holocaust denial. Ahmadinejad blamed "the Zionist regime" for the Iraq war, among other crimes. He clearly believed that the conference against racism would fail unless it assailed the Jewish state - and broader Western ideals of liberalism, secularism, and capitalism.

Although the conference president thanked Ahmadinejad for his sentiments, the next speaker, Norway's foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store repudiated the Iranian's remarks. Store said Ahmadinejad expressed himself "in a way that threatens the very purpose of this conference.... Freedom of speech yes," Store said, "but incitement of hatred, no." Ahmadinejad's speech, Store said, "runs counter to the very spirit and dignity of this conference." Even more important than Store's words were his - and his European Union colleagues' -- actions. As soon as Ahmadinejad claimed the European powers used "the pretext" of Jewish suffering to establish a Jewish state, dozens of EU delegates walked out. I remained disappointed that their countries did not boycott the conference. But the delegates did something tremendous. I never thought a parade of (mostly) men in (mostly) dark, pin-striped suits could be so moving. If only they were willing to demand the UN stick to its ideals regularly...