24/2/2007- The United Nations General Assembly in 1975 adopted resolution 3379 (XXX), which “determines that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination”, but voted to repeal it in December 1991. At a panel discussion at UN Headquarters in New York, on 22 February 2007, speakers discussed the relations between the United Nations and Israel, as well as the activities they had undertaken to foster understanding throughout the world.
Dan Gillerman, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, said relations between Israel and the United Nations had been difficult in the years before 1975, and the resolution equating Zionism with racism represented “the nail in the coffin of UN-Israeli relations”. Although the resolution had created a schism whose effects are still felt today, the United Nations had “taken significant steps to cleanse that stain and made Israel feel accepted”, he said. The repeal of resolution 3379, the UN-sponsored seminars titled “Unlearning Intolerance” on anti-Semitism and their promotion of understanding between religious and ethnic groups, in 2004 and 2005, as well as the Assembly’s adoption of a resolution establishing 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, have helped improve relations since their low point in 1975, Mr. Gillerman said. “It was an emotional moment to see the same General Assembly Hall, where resolution 3379 was adopted in 1975, filled with people who had come to commemorate the Holocaust. For us, this was the ultimate victory.”
Harris Schoenberg, President of UN Reform Advocates, said that the 16 years he worked to repeal Resolution 3379 were well worth the effort. He recalled the strong negative reaction to the Resolution from various sectors of civil society in the United States, including 50 major newspapers and many civil rights leaders. “Many people felt that the repeal should be done, but few thought that it could be done.” Mr. Schoenberg said the repeal became more possible as new democracies in Eastern Europe began to support it, and was finally made a reality when the Soviet Union, one of the original backers of the Resolution, came to support repeal.
John Haas, history professor at Cerritos College in Los Angeles, California and Director Cerritos’ The Global Consortium, told of his work to promote understanding between the peoples of the world. His programs on global education bring together citizens from such diverse places as Cambodia, Israel and Singapore. Mr. Haas told of a recent program with Dr. Judea Pearl, father of Daniel Pearl, a journalist who was captured in Karachi, Pakistan and eventually murdered in 2002. Since the loss of his son, Mr. Pearl has dedicated his life to eradicating hate and promoting understanding among the world’s peoples. Among other tools, he uses music to foster tolerance and the “Daniel Pearl World Music Days” concerts to bring people of diverse cultures together. Mr. Haas also cited his Consortium’s programme on the Holocaust, with speakers from the Simon Wiesenthal Center–an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated, according to its website, to “repairing the world one step at a time”.
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