January 30, 2008

Who is Louise Arbour?

Louise Arbour is the current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. According to Wikipedia, in July, during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Louise Arbour stated that "those in positions of command and control" could be subject to "personal criminal responsibility" for their actions in the conflict.

According to the Weekly Standard, and I am in agreement with their analysis, her talk about "proportionality" and anyone else who frames Israel's defense of her own border with that predjudice, actually means "they don't like Israel."

Louise Arbour was impugning Israel but Israel doesn't target civilian concentrations. Clearly, Louise Arbour doesn't get it.

Israel Unity Coalition, a Christian and Jewish alliance, is now informing us about the blatant anti-Semitism in the new Arab charter on human rights. This document was endorsed by Louise Arbour on January 24th in a statement in which she welcomed it's ratification by saying it is, "an important step forward" in strengthening the enjoyment of human rights in the Arab world.

The Arab Charter is in fact just the opposite by equating Zionism with Racism.

Why?

UN Watch stated that the newly ratified Arab League document "contains several provisions that promote classically anti-Semitic themes."

UN Watch monitors the UN's compliance with its charter and is associated with the American Jewish Committee. Their letter pointed to troubling sentences in the Arab Charter, one
"rejecting all forms of racism and Zionism, which constitute a violation of human rights and a threat to international peace and security."
Another sentence says,
"all forms of racism, Zionism and foreign occupation and domination constitute an impediment to human dignity. . .all such practices must be condemned and efforts must be deployed for their elimination."

According to Israel Unity Coalition, the Arab league originally adopted the Arab charter in 1994 but it was never enforced as it was not ratified by the required number of 7 member states.

The Arab states that just ratified this charter are:
the United Arab Emirates,
Jordan,
Bahrain,
Algeria,
Syria,
Libya,
and the Palestinian Authority.

These indictments of Zionism by the Arab Charter on Human Rights are an unacceptable distortion of the true mission of Zionism which is:
"the movement for Jewish self-determination that asserts the inherent and internationally-acknowledged right of Israel to exist."
The letter from UN Watch said
"A text that equates Zionism with racism, describes it as a threat to world peace, as an enemy of human rights and human dignity, and then urges its elimination, is blatantly anti-Semitic. Even if the Arab Charter may contain other, constructive provisions, nothing can justify any endorsement of a text with such hateful language."
Anyone with any moral clarity would hope that Louise Arbor's office would issue a strongly worded retraction and that the responsible person in her office would be identified and held fully accountable for this blatant acceptance of misinformation.

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