Wiesenthal Center slams UN for holding Palestinian ‘propaganda exercise’

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Friday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Director for International Relations Shimon
Samuels expressed “intense disgust” at the three-day International Meeting on the Question of Palestine that was held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

Samuels said the conference presented “a litany of assault against the Jewish state, redolent of the 2001 UN World Conference against Racism in Durban, that degenerated into an antisemitic hatefest.”

Samuels drew particular attention to the words of United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) head Abdou Salam Diallo, saying the group posed “a threat to world peace and should be disbanded.”

In his address to the conference, Diallo reportedly said about the Palestinian cause against Israel that, “One drop of water on a rock does nothing, continual dripping destroys the rock.”

Samuels also pointed out the role that UNESCO played in the meeting. “One speaker after another congratulated UNESCO for its bravery in
seating Palestine, thanking the Director-General for her support. It was
the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad
Mansour, who put it clearest: ‘Palestine is now a full member of UNESCO. Here we can recharge our batteries to fight harder,'” wrote Samuels.

The letter concluded by asking: “What was the real value of this generously funded meeting for Palestinian youth and women’s rights, but which covered up a propaganda exercise?”

The Wiesenthal Center called on the UN Secretary-General to condemn the Paris meeting and to launch an investigation into the CEIRPP’s activities in violation of the UN Charter.