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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (file)
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| By Israel Insider staff September 2, 2007 |
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The UN held a conference last week at the European Parliament, on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which seven attending members of the EP said "casts a shadow on the UN role in the Middle East conflict and is first and foremost harmful to the UN," the Jerusalem Post reported.
The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People [CEIRPP] organized the two-day "UN International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace." Critics slammed the event as one-sided and biased, saying that the CEIRPP co-opted the event. Poland boycotted the conference and others organized protests and rallies against it.
Seven MEPs published a letter in the Herald Tribune condemning the conference, saying "it has a proven record of anti-Israel bias, spreading propaganda that presents only the Palestinian narrative, including the delegitimization of Israel - a UN member state."
The continued, saying about the conference that "its work only reinforces a long-held Israeli suspicion vis-a-vis the UN and contributes nothing to the cause of peace. A recent example is a plan of action calling for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel," the letter continued.
"Will the conference, in the halls of the European Parliament, issue similar directives? Though of little practical consequence, this conference, especially under the banner and auspices of the European Parliament, will harm the cause of peace and also damage European credibility as an honest broker," the MEPs wrote.
"We hope many more will join in condemning this event and call on the presidency to reconsider the damaging consequences this event will have for our institution. Behind the neutral banner of a UN committee and the seemingly respectable goals of this conference there lurks a biased agenda of radical anti-Israel organizations. The European Parliament should not give them a platform in the only representative body of the EU, whose goals are to foster dialogue and understanding, not acrimony, mistrust and despair," they continued.
Among the Palestinian presenters were Raji Sourani, who justifies Hamas attacks as "resistance," and Jamal Juma, who describes Israel as a "colonial racist apartheid state," according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Also speaking at the conference was Leila Shahid, Palestinian envoy to the European Union and cousin of the late PLO leader Yassir Arafat. Other NGOs present are closely tied to pro-Palestinian lobby groups and campaign for boycotts and sanctions against Israel.
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