Shalev. Reality must not be ignored Photo: Shahar Azran
Israel's UN ambassador warns of 2nd Holocaust
Prof. Shalev says countries like Iran which deny Shoah, call for Jewish state's destruction are a real threat and must be dealt with firmly. Nazi Holocaust began with leaders' dangerous words, she says
The United Nations convened Monday to discuss a work plan submitted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the memory of the Holocaust, a week before the UN marks the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Israel's
Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev took advantage of the opportunity to warn the world's countries against threats made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
and demanded that the UN work to stop them immediately.
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Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, was a pogrom in Nazi Germany which left 92 Jews murdered and some 30,000 arrested and deported to concentration camps.
Prof. Shalev reminded the countries' representatives that they had taken an oath at the General Assembly after World War II that the Shoah "will never return", adding that the Jew's Holocaust also began with leaders' dangerous words.
The Israeli ambassador said that Israel and the Jewish people appreciate the UN's historic decision made three years ago to hold an annual Holocaust memorial and have the UN secretary-general submit an annual report on the organization's activities on the matter, but added that this was not enough.
We must learn the lesson of the Nazi genocide and identify modern threats, she said.
Shalev warned that the inconvenient reality, 60 years after the Holocaust must not be ignored. Over this very stage, she said, we hear a leader of a country which is a member of the UN deny the Holocaust and call for the destruction of another country which is a member of this organization.
'Shoah did not begin in gas chambers'
The Israeli ambassador reminded those present that the countries' representatives had promised "never again" at the General Assembly. She added that the world must not only condemn statements like the ones made by Ahmadinejad, but also act immediately and firmly against the country whose leaders make such despicable and dangerous remarks.
We must remember that the Shoah did not begin in the gas chambers, she said, but ended there. The Nazi Holocaust began with people's dangerous words, she noted.
About two years ago, Israel's former UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman made a similar statement when he warned
that Iran
was planning another Holocaust. He spoke in response to a report that Tehran was planning to hold a Holocaust denial conference.
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