Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, speaking on the eve of the UN conference on racism in Geneva, from the Israel Beytenu website
Following World War Two, they [note: WW II victors] resorted to making an entire nation homeless on the pretext of Jewish suffering. They sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine. In compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive, racist regime in Palestine.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Geneva; excerpted remarks on the BBC website
The old saw about the pot calling the kettle black comes to mind. Personally, I don't think either Mahmoud Amadinejad or Avigdor Lieberman represent all their citizens or the ethos of their respective countries. Both, however, are the product of elections, and therfore do represent currents that are alive in broad segments of their societies. That said, I would like both of them to go to hell.
Since they are respectively President and Foreign Minister of Iran and Israel, my wish to send them to Hades is irrelevant. Maybe as irrelevant as the UN Conference - official site here - itself.
A UN conference to condemn racism? I am not going to fall into the facile complaint about wasting money on sending hundreds of people to talking shops; international conferences can often lead to useful conclusions. Even the original Durban Declaration is credited with fostering minority rights in places like Latin America and India.
But yesterday's set-piece speech + walkout/boycott was guaranteed from the start to steal whatever credibility the organizers had provided the conference. They would have done better to invite Avigdor Lieberman, so that he could expound on his plan - remember, he is now Israel's Foreign Minister - to eject Arab citizens of Israel and "trade" their land for the burgeoning Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "The more homogeneous a country is, the better it develops," he told Der Spiegel in 2007. According to Ben Lynfield, Jerusalem-based freelance writer for The Nation, Lieberman illustrates "the ascendance of fascist ideas in Israel."
Whatever pious imprecations are mouthed in Geneva over the next few days, racism and intolerance will continue to abound. A few leagues south of Geneva, in Italy, football crowds continue in their racist ways. In Iran, Ahmedinejad has returned to a rapturous welcome after sticking it to the West. Maybe he can apply himself to the question of press freedom and Roxana Saberi. And, out of sight of the world's media, Israel under Netanyahu/Lieberman continues to make life miserable for Arabs.
Here's my question: will any of the countries whose delegations walked out on or boycotted Ahmadinejad similarly spurn Avigdor Lieberman? A man whose current "diplomatic" duties cannot cover a lifetime of racism?