a Zionism On The Web Special
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Where does the concept “Zionism is Racism” come from? Is there any justification? This section of the sites examines these issues and provides links to further resources for those studying this question, or simply interested in it.
So where does the idea that “Zionism is Racism” come from? On November 10th, 1975, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 3379, it labelled Zionism a form of racism. Some authors have contented that the motion and support for it was orchestrated by the USSR as part of their Zionology. The sponsors of the motion was the Arab block and the supporters those in the USSR’s sphere of influence through the cold war. 72 states voted for the motion to equate Zionism with Racism while 67 voted against or abstained (35 against, 32 abstained). The motion was resoundingly revoked (cancelled) in 1991 with 111 votes in favour, 25 against and 13 abstaining.
The Cold War Soviet Union doctrine of Zionology was sponsored by the Department of propaganda of the Communist Party and by the KGB. It stated that Zionism was a form of Racism and Similar to Nazism. As communism was against Racism, and Zionism was largely formed under strong leftist and socialist influences this presented some difficulties for the Soviet Union. They solved this by misrepresenting Zionism, and focussing on its links with America. Much anti-Zionist propaganda was produced by the Soviet Union, much of it was antisemitic and in cases Nazi propaganda and old Tsarist antisemitic material was reproduced. The UN also started producing anti-Zionist propaganda. Using resolution 3379 as a moral basis, UN educational publications spread anti-Zionist dogma throughout the world.
In 1991, with the fall of the Soviet Union, the UN General Assembly revoked resolution 3379, admitting it had been mistaken to label Zionism and Racism. The motion to revoke 3379 ( General Assembly Resolution 4686) is one of the shortest in history and passed with 111 for and only 25 against. There were 88 member nations who jointly sponsored (proposed) the motion, this is significantly more than voted for the Zionism is Racism motion in the first place. In fact where less than twice as many voted for the original motion as against, more than four times as many people voted to revoke as voted to keep it.
In spite of the retraction by the UN, some politically motivated NGOs tried to use the Durban Conference against Racism and Xenophobia in September 2001 to revive the idea that "Zionism is Racism" in "The NGO Declaration". The declaration was very high profile, but was not an official conference document. This occured in preconference meetings that took place in Iran, and to which both Israeli delegates and Jews in general were banned from attending. In their absence Israel was accused of committing holocausts and being anti-Semitic. There was no international outcry against Israel's exclusion. The conference became a major incident world wide and a number of countries withdrew their delegations as a result of the politised actions of the NGOs. Far from being against Racism, the Durban conference promoted it.In June 2004 at a UN Seminar on antisemitism Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General said “Let us acknowledge that the United Nations' record on anti-Semitism has at times fallen short of our ideals. The General Assembly resolution of 1975, equating Zionism with racism, was an especially unfortunate decision. I am glad that it has since been rescinded. But there remains a need for constant vigilance.”
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