http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Nov. 25, 2008
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann accused Israel of apartheid and called for "a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions" against it.
During Monday's UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Brockmann, of Nicaragua, also claimed "our Palestinian brothers and sisters are being crucified" by Israel.
Brockmann made the apartheid allegation twice on Monday, once in the morning at the annual meeting of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and again in the General Assembly in the afternoon.
"I spoke this morning about apartheid and how Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories appear so similar to the apartheid of an earlier era, a continent away. I believe it is very important that we in the United Nations use this term," he said. "We must not be afraid to call something what it is. It is the United Nations, after all, that passed the International Convention against the Crime of Apartheid, making clear to all the world that such practices of official discrimination must be outlawed wherever they occur.
"More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a non-violent means of pressuring South Africa...Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel..."
Anne Bayefsky, Editor of EYEontheUN blasted Brockmann's remarks.
"Brockmann's assault is a gross abuse of the position of Assembly President," she said. "He knows full well that his outrageous personal views will be translated into six languages and Webcast around the world."
"Brockmann's call," continued Bayefsky, "was in effect, a call for the political destruction of Israel by means of the same strategy adopted against apartheid South Africa."
The UN flew only two flags during Monday's event, that of "Palestine" and that of the United Nations.
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