Seems that upon brainstorming ways to "disrupt the Zionist narrative," Students Against Open Debate decided to tape onto their t-shirts loose-leaf paper scribbled with quotations about peace (since, you know, Zionists hate peace). After Richard Goldstone had his turn to speak to the mostly polite audience, and Dore Gold dared to start presenting his own views, the handful of activists stood up, removed their jackets and showed their righteous handwriting to the attendees sitting directly behind them.
After a quick rebuke by a moderator, they sat back down, undoubtedly satisfied that they've sufficiently promoted the ideal that people should act out disruptively when someone they disagree with is speaking.
And nothing on Muzzlewatch about this:
ReplyDeleteNo serious student of the UN’s three decades of "Zionism equals Racism" Israel-hatred could have been surprised last week to see the General Assembly endorse the Goldstone Report condemning Israel for the Gaza war with little to suggest that Hamas (which fired missiles at Israeli cities and used women and children as shields) had any culpability and then to see it refer the report to the Security Council which endorsed it by a vote of 114 to 18 with 44 abstentions (including France and Great Britain)
One petite woman, Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, and a credentialed UN observer, had the courage to speak out. After listening to the likes of Libya and the Palestinian observer congratulate the UN and lecture reporters about “human rights” and “the rule of law,” Anne Bayefsky stepped to the open microphone. After a short two minutes, four UN security guards surrounded her, confiscated her UN pass, and accompanied her to the UN security office and after "investigation", out of the building.
What did Ms. Bayefsky say at the open mic to terrify the United Nations? In brief: “This is a resolution that purports to be even-handed. It is anything but. It’s a travesty. It calls for accountability and in fact what we see instead is impunity for the Palestinian side. . . . The idea that Hamas is going to investigate itself—a terrorist organization is going to decide for itself whether or not it violates the rule of law—is something that no serious democratic society will take seriously.”
The chief of UN security who confiscated her badge said, "The Palestinian ambassador was very upset by what happened. You shouldn’t have been allowed to speak." They removed the video of Anne's brief speech from the UN file. The “investigation” of Anne Bayefsky continues: As of last week, her pass was still in the possession of UN security. No word on when it will be returned to her. No word, either, from Women Watch http://www.un.org/womenwatch/ , the website of the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality.
In the end, nothing about the shameless pandering of the great United Nations to the enemies of tiny Israel is ever really all that unexpected.
Now that Obama has joined the UN's Human Rights Council, we should be pressing his office to react to this blatant violation of free speech. Anne is a native Canadian. The Canadian mission ought to intervene on behalf of her reinstatement as well.