U.N. approves Holocaust Day
General Assembly votes unanimously to designate January 27th as international Holocaust commemoration day. Some countries express reservations; Egypt: No one has monopoly on suffering
The United Nation's General Assembly unanimously approved Israel's resolution and set January 27th as the international Holocaust commemoration day.
The approval was expected and no country wanted to object. However, following the approval Muslim countries' representatives expressed their reservations.
The Egyptian ambassador said that the resolution should have included other genocide cases, claiming that no one has a monopoly on suffering. The Malaysian representative said that there were other genocides which were no less severe.
Indonesia's representative protested that the Holocaust was not the only human tragedy. China's representative protested against the horrors instigated by Japanese soldiers in World War Two, and Venezuela's representative protested the dropping of American nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom lauded the United Nation’s decision.
“We are talking about a historic decision, the first of its kind since the establishment of the country (Israel,) he said. “The U.N. General Assembly adopted an Israeli proposal that marks a precedent.”
'Moved and privileged'
Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Gillerman introduced the resolution in the U.N. General Assembly on Monday.
The resolution, which is the first to be introduced by Israel in the UN General Assembly, was expected to be approved by consensus, after 90 states confirmed their support for the measure.
The resolution asks all countries to reject any full or partial denial of the Holocaust and condemn "all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, wherever they occur."
"I feel moved and privileged to present this historic resolution today, as an Israeli, a Jew, a human being and the child of Holocaust victims," Gillerman told the General Assembly.
Gillerman recalled that the United Nations was founded on the ashes of the Holocaust and the commitment to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war." The resolution described an "indelible link" between the world body and the "unique tragedy" of the war.
"While the Holocaust was a unique tragedy for the Jewish people, its lessons are universal," he said. "The Holocaust was carried out at the height of the rational age and it represents a watershed in human history. It brought us face to face with the full extent of man’s capacity for inhumanity to his fellow man."
Holocaust lessons recognized
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who was unable to attend the session lauded the measure, and said that the expected approval of the resolution constitutes a significant step forward in the war on anti-Semitism, in the commemoration of the holocaust and in advancing Israel's international stature.
Today, 60 years after the Holocaust, the UN finally acknowledges the importance of its lessons and treats Israel as an equal member in the international community, Shalom added.
Germany's U.N. Ambassador Gunter Pleuger called the Holocaust "the darkest chapter in the history of Germany" marked by "the silent terror of the camps."
"At a time when the last personal witnesses of the Holocaust are leaving us, it is especially important to find new ways to keep the fate of the victims alive in the memory of the world -- and to keep on asking how such crimes could ever be committed," Pleuger said.
Reuters contributed to this report
