The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), Australia’s leading organisation fighting anti-Semitism and hatred in all its forms, has condemned the speech by Ecuadorian Ambassador to the U.N. Horacio Sevilla Borja in which he compared the treatment by Israel of the Palestinians to Nazi Germany. In his address at the United Nations General Assembly during “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People”, Sevilla, quoted the late Fidel Castro and said, “We repudiate with all our strength the persecution and genocide that in its time unleashed Nazism against the Hebrew people. But I cannot remember anything more similar in our contemporary history than the eviction, persecution and genocide that today’s imperialism and Zionism do against the Palestinian people.”
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“Once again, the U.N has been hijacked by ambassadors who peddle anti-Semitic slanders about the Jewish state. In no way can Israel’s just and legitimate actions to defend its citizens from terrorism be compared to the Nazis’ systematic and deliberate murder of six million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust. The outrageous remarks by Ambassador Sevilla— who surely is aware there has never been an Israeli policy or plan to exterminate or expel the Palestinians— only reinforce the appalling and dangerous equations that we have seen far too often at the U.N, and which demonstrate a profound ignorance about the history of the Shoah. They are also deeply insulting and hurtful to the memory of the victims, the survivors and their families, and to the entire Jewish community. When an ambassador of a U.N member state makes such extremist and libellous charges, that link the victims of Hitler’s barbaric regime with the Nazi perpetrators, he not only damages and undermines the credibility of this institution, but brings shame on it. We call on Ambassador Sevilla to apologise for his canards or to be replaced by the Ecuadorian government immediately. ”
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading civil rights organization fighting racism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677.