RACISM ON THE AGENDA: MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD’S ATTACK ON ISRAEL TRIGGERS WALKOUT AT THE UN
Julian Borger
The Guardian
Tuesday 21 April 2009
Geneva
Iran’s president launches tirade at tolerance summit
Diplomats stage protest as speech denies Holocaust
>From the moment Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s name appeared on the programme
for a major UN conference against racism, it was guaranteed to be a
controversial performance. Yesterday, the Iranian president lived
up to expectations, questioning the history of the Holocaust and
accusing Israel of racism and genocide in a speech which triggering
a coordinated walk out by Britain and other European countries.
Ahmadinejad caused uproar at the Geneva meeting by delivering a long,
rambling polemic against Zionism, which he equated with racism, and
blamed for the war in Iraq. He said Zionists had "penetrated into
the political and economic structure including their legislation,
mass media, companies, financial systems, and their security and
intelligence agencies".
"They have imposed their domination to the extent that nothing can be
done against their will," the Iranian president told delegates from
around the world in Geneva’s historic Palais des Nations, birthplace
of the League of Nations.
The speech not only overshadowed the conference intended to review
international progress against racism and discrimination around
the world, it seemed to rule out any rapprochement between Iran and
the west.
Diplomats said it was unlikely Ahmadinejad would have delivered such
a controversial speech without the approval of Iran’s supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The US and Israel had led a boycott of the conference, known as the
Durban review. They were followed by Australia, New Zealand, Germany,
Italy, the Netherlands and Poland. Britain, France and other EU nations
decided to attend but were ready, with their "shoes on" as one British
official put it, to walk out if Ahmadinejad’s speech proved offensive.
It did that fairly quickly.
There was pandemonium in the hall as the Iranian leader reached
the lectern.
A group of about 100 demonstrators, largely from Jewish groups,
gathered in the lobby outside the assembly hall, shouting "shame". A
handful infiltrated the hall, and as Ahmadinejad began to talk,
they sprung up dressed in multicoloured clowns’ wigs and red noses,
chanting "racist" before being marched out.
Ahmadinejad remained unruffled, asking the delegates to "forgive these
ignorant people". Then the speech began and it soon became clear he
was in no mood for detente with the west.
Within a few minutes he said: "Following world war two, [powerful
countries] resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation
homeless, on the pretext of Jewish suffering and the ambiguous and
dubious question of the Holocaust … and they helped bring to power
the most cruel and repress ive racists in Palestine."
It was at that point that the European delegates in the chamber,
along with the Armenians and the St Kitts delegation, rose in unison
and walked out.
Later, Peter Gooderham, British ambassador to the UN in Geneva,
who had walked out, said: "As soon as President Ahmadinejad started
talking about Israel, its history and government it was clear that
was the cue for us. We agreed in advance that if there was any such
rhetoric there would be no tolerance for it."
At a press conference afterwards, the Iranian leader was
unapologetic. "Why should they be afraid of participating in a
conference or listening to something they disagree with. This is
the arrogance and selfishness that is the root cause of many of the
world’s problems."
Taking part in the demonstrations outside was the film star Jon Voight,
a supporter of Israel who said he had come to confront Ahmadinejad’s
position on the Holocaust. Voight told the Guardian: "The fox is
in charge of the hen house here. This is supposed to be about human
rights, but hidden under that banner is antisemitism. Someone has to
respond to it."
One of the protesters in a wig, Joelle Jakubowicz, a member of the
Union of Jewish Students in France, said: "You can’t fight racism if
you are racist yourself."
The Iranian president has ruled out compromise on Iran’s nuclear
programme, but has occasionally raised hopes of a thaw in
relations. Those hopes look forlorn.