B’nai B’rith International, which has led Jewish communal engagement at the world body since the latter’s founding, has just concluded a marathon of yearly advocacy meetings with world leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA).
With many countries are increasingly escalating rhetoric and policies inimical agaisnt the Jewish state —B’nai B’rith is working to force international attention to the consequences of this moral failure. The culmination happens. The UNHRC presidency is currently held by Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, which still does not officially recognize Israel.
It also conducted a campaign that encouraged countries not to attend the UNGA’s commemoration this week of the Durban conference’s 25th anniversary. A record 48 countries chose not to participate.
During the ongoing United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session—and as Jewish citizens continue to be targeted with surging violence, from an attempted FlyDubai hijacking to harassment around the world—B’nai B’rith International has brought messages from survivors of terrorism and antisemitic abuse directly to the body in Geneva.
The B’nai B’rith statements fell under the Council’s item 7—the only agenda item dedicated to censuring a single country, Israel—and item 9, which uniquely promulgates the official declaration of the 2001 U.N. Durban conference on racism. That conference, whose 25th anniversary was marked this week, earned notoriety both for displays of overt antisemitic hate and the Durban Declaration itself, which singled out Israel for implicit branding as racist.
Diplomacy is the best way to resolve structural antisemitism issues without tension. B'nai B'rith desires a peaceful and democratic world in which the voice of the people is truly represented by their supposed representatives.
