Waving a book of anti-Semitic cartoons distributed at the anti-racism conference in Durban, United Nations High Commissioner Mary Robinson declared, “I am a Jew.”
Robinson’s dramatic act of identification with the Jews vilified in the pamphlet occurred at a non-governmental organizations (NGO) dinner Wednesday night in Durban.
Shimon Samuels, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris, said that after he showed Robinson the booklet, she waved it and said:
“This conference is aimed at achieving human dignity. My husband is a cartoonist, I love political cartoons, but when I see the racism in this cartoon booklet, of the Arab Lawyers’ Union, I must say that I am a Jew — for those victims are hurting. I know that you people will not understand easily, but you are my friends, so I tell you that I am a Jew, and I will not accept this fractiousness to torpedo the conference.”
Samuels, head of the Jewish caucus at the anti-racism conference, said that the booklet, which he said contained vile anti-Semitic cartoons, was handed out at registration, and that several of the Jewish groups in Durban had complained about it.
Pamphlets circulated at the NGO meeting caricatured Jews, while posters deepicted slogans overlapping the Star of David with the swastika. Many pro-Palestinian delegates wore T-shirts with a slogan equating Israel with apartheid and colonialism, and calling it an occupying power that kills civilians.
“There is a real sense of hostility toward Jewish people,” said Karen Pollock, director of the London-based Holocaust Education Trust. “We are being intimidated.”
Meanwhile, a group from the World Union of Jewish Students, which set up a booth Wednesday at the NGO sessions, was confronted by Palestinian students chanting anti-Israeli slogans.
The Jewish students sang: “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” The Palestinians responded , “We will redeem Palestine through blood and fire.”
“I feel besieged, there’s anti-Semitism and hate literature at the world racism conference. It couldn’t get much worse,” said Anne Bayefsky, a professor from New York’s Columbia University Law School.