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March 29, 2002
Canadians Back Israel
Durban Debacle changed minds, says Elterman.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
Since the debacle at Durban last year, Canada’s foreign policy
leaders seem to have developed a more supportive view toward Israel,
says a senior Jewish activist.
Dr. Michael Elterman is national associate chair of Canadian Jewish
Congress and co-chair of the Israel Action Committee, the Vancouver
area’s umbrella body supporting Israel. Recent developments
at the United Nations level suggest Canada has come around significantly
in recent months, he said.
Elterman was responding to this week’s meeting in Geneva, Switzerland,
of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Last year, a conference
in Durban, South Africa, which was dubbed a conference on racism,
turned into an anti-Semitic free-for-all. The Arab nations and their
developing world allies co-opted the conference and used it to promote
their own anti-Zionist agenda.
Elterman said that, as Canadian leaders have pondered what went
wrong at Durban, they have come to accept that the world body is
controlled by forces that are predisposed against Israel. In response,
Elterman believes Canadian policy-makers are learning to take a
stand in favor of the Jewish state.
“By Canada going along for so long with this – and Durban
is an example of what can happen – I think there has been a
pulling away from the traditional perception of neutrality and going
along with the world community,” Elterman said.
Last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham, told reporters
in Geneva that Canada will come to Israel’s aid at the conference.
Graham had not ingratiated himself with Canadian Jewish leaders
when he contradicted Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s
statement of support for Israel at a Canada-Israel Committee meeting
earlier this month. However, Graham said the Arab states and their
allies have manipulated the United Nations agenda against Israel
and this country will do what it can to counter that situation.
There is not a lot that Canada can do. The UN Human Rights Commission
is made up of 53 member-nations. The United States, Israel’s
traditional closest ally in the diplomatic world, was voted off
the commission last year. In the face of an annual onslaught of
anti-Israel resolutions, a member of the commission can only demand
that a ballot take place on each individual vote. The resolutions
are almost certain to pass with overwhelming support regardless
of Canada’s intervention, but a recorded vote allows dissenting
nations to register their disapproval with the direction of the
resolutions. Without a recorded vote, the resolutions are considered
to have passed “by consensus,” suggesting unanimity, something
the Arab states would use for propaganda value.
This Arab-initiated attack is part of an ongoing propaganda battle
at the United Nations level, which came to a crescendo last year
when it became public that Canada was repeatedly voting in support
of anti-Israel resolutions at the committee level of the UN.
The appalled response to the blatant anti-Semitic rhetoric at Durban
opened Canadians’ eyes to the direction parts of the UN were
going, Elterman said, and has made Canadian leaders more vigilant
about expressing support for Israel in the international arena.
“I think it’s a positive development,” he said.
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