Tharoor's Record
I was present at the UN International Media Encounter on the Question of Palestine held in Paris in 2001. Shashi Tharoor had just been appointed to head UNDPI and the decision to include Israel Shamir was made prior to Tharoor's appointment.
During the seminar, Tharoor was rightly appalled at Shamir's rants and roundly criticized him from the podium. Tharoor refused to give Israel Shamir the floor when he raised his hand to respond to other speakers. Tharoor later told me (and his staff) that he would never allow Shamir another platform at any UN event sponsored by the UN's Department of Public Information.
What Tharoor is responsible for, however, is converting the annual seminar into a forum for constructive engagement rather than a platform for the demonization of Israel. Additionally, Tharoor was responsible for the first-ever UN conference on anti-Semitism and he played a key role in the General Assembly Special Session on the Liberation of Auschwitz.
posted by Emet at 1:36 PM
8 Comments:
I thought you might enjoy my follow-up, posted at http://mediacrity.blogspot.com/2005/05/shashi-fan-club-and-reuters-responds.html
Monday, May 30, 2005
The Shashi Fan Club -- and Reuters -- Responds
My post the other day on the UN giving a forum to the anti-Semite Israel Shamir--for which we all can thank the UN's not-so-hard-working Minister of Propaganda, Shashi Tharoor--has elicited a response from the Shashi Tharoor Fan Club! Well, actually two responses. I'll leave the best for last.
The first is from a reader, calling himself "Emet," who claims that he was at the event in question. He defends Tharoor in a comment to my post, saying that Tharoor was a veritable pillar of integrity who publicly castigated Shamir. And besides, our reader points out, "the decision to include Israel Shamir was made prior to Tharoor's appointment."
Well, I don't know how "Emet" is privy to the internal workings of the UN Department of Public Information, but... putting that aside and assuming its accuracy.... as another comment notes, Tharoor was appointed five months before the Paris "forum" that gave a platform to a joker who is so extreme that he is disowned by the Palestinians.
Tharoor's UN bio confirms that he was appointed in January 2001, while the "UN International Media Encounter on the Question of Palestine" was held in June 2001. Five months. Hmmm.... I think five months was plenty of time for Tharoor to unpack, put up his pictures, water his plants, make a pot of coffee and... yes, vet the participants in the UN International Media Encounter on the Question of Palestine. Or, at the very least, delegate one of the seven hundred flacks, bureaucrats and propagandists at the Department of Public Information to do it for him.
So sorry Emet. Shashi hadn't "just been appointed to head UNDPI." Nice try. But thanks for posting and good luck with your blog, Tharoor's Record. No kidding--that's its name. (Wow.... you really like the guy, don't you........)
By the way, if Tharoor really did go ape when Shamir started mouthing off, as Emet contends, one would think that there would be something in the public record distancing the DPI (and Tharoor personally) from the invitation. There isn't.
Back to the question--why did Tharoor allow a creepy anti-Semite to participate in a UN forum--and probably pay his way to Paris if not pay him for participating on the panel? How could did he do such a thing? Well, he could be an anti-Semite himself who didn't see anything wrong with Shamir's very public excoriations of the Jewish people. He could be just dumb and incompetent. Or Shashi could have realized that nobody would care. After all, he was among chums--the media.
That brings me to the really most fascinating response to my item. A reader decided to send copies of my post on Tharoor to some UN reporters, as a way of alerting them to this Tharoor-Shamir business and perhaps arouse their interest. After all, it is a legitimate news story and is entirely contained in the public record. What if Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, had done exactly what Tharoor had done? It would be page one news from coast to coast--and I daresay that "I've only been on the job for five months" wouldn't wash. McClellan would be fired so fast it would make your head spin.
Anyway, this reader received back a snippy response from none other Evelyn Leopold, UN correspondent for the Reuters "news" service. Leopold said in an email to this reader "You have an agenda and relly [sic] don't know what you are talking about. Tis embarrassing."
Wow. This lady is most definitely not interested and is really annoyed that someone would dare question the record of our Minister of Propaganda. Isn't that interesting? Putting aside the irony of someone from Reuters accusing anyone else on this planet of having an "agenda," we have this "don't know what you're talking about" stuff. Say Evelyn, it's all in the public record--Shamir's Jew-baiting, his participation in the "forum," his repudiation by the Palestinians-- every bit of it.
Evelyn's email substantiates what we already know, which is that that the relationship between the UN press corps and the UN is closerthanthis, as the gossip columnists used to say. Sure, some of them have been on the payroll, but you don't have to be functioning as a paid flack or UN TV host to abandon your role as an inquiring journalist and switch over to a defender of the UN and its officials when they are criticized. We saw this during Koffigate and we see this happening with Tharoor.
I don't know. Would Evelyn Leopold act this way if she were a White House correspondent and it really was Scott McClellan who hosted Israel Shamir--or perhaps some anti-black or anti-Catholic bigot? We can only surmise...
Anyway, there are still more issues raised by Shashigate, but that's enough for now.
Here's something else Shashi might want to read--a report by UN Watch on how it can fight anti-Semitism.
Maybe, if he doesn't want to read it, he can pay you to read it to him, assuming you are not already on his payroll (or aren't Shashi himself, as I presume you are).
What Shashi should do is read it aloud and then write on the blackboard 100 times, "I will not give a forum to an anti-Semite... I will not give a forum to an anti-Semite....."
How the UN Can Help Fight Anti-Semitism
Hillel C. Neuer
For the first time ever, the United Nations commemorated the Holocaust on Monday, in a special session marking 60 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camps. Secretary-General Kofi Annan admirably rallied wide support for convening the gathering. Yet at a time when anti-Semitism has reached its worst levels since 1945 — a period symbolized by the videotaped beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl with his last words of “I am a Jew” — the UN’s response remains troubling.
Last June, the United Nations hosted a seminar on anti-Semitism. Apart from Annan, who delivered a strong address, those presenting were mostly Jewish experts, speaking to an audience primarily of Jewish leaders. The event had its merits, but providing a room in Manhattan for a group of Jews to talk amongst themselves is hardly the contribution one expects from the UN in confronting a global disease.
With a pulpit of unrivalled reach, the UN must take a leadership role in communicating the international community’s resolve to fight hatred against Jews. This it must do not only by condemning anti-Semitism in relevant resolutions, but by considering a panoply of other available measures.
First, following the 2000 Stockholm Declaration, in which 45 nations committed to an annual commemoration of the Holocaust, the General Assembly should establish its own remembrance day. This would be a perpetual reminder of the evils of anti-Semitism, a bulwark against Holocaust deniers and a universal lesson against all forms of intolerance.
Second, the UN Commission on Human Rights should establish a Special Rapporteur on anti-Semitism, as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has done with a Special Representative, and now the United States with a Special Envoy. Failing that, the commission should instruct the Special Rapporteur on racism to specifically examine anti-Semitism, as it has done with Islamophobia.
Finally, treaty bodies such as the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination should pay greater attention to anti-Semitism, such as by holding a special thematic discussion similar to that held for the Roma. These initiatives could make a difference. The truth, though, is that the UN cannot credibly fight anti-Semitism in the world, when, within its own walls, it actually fosters it.
By systematically singling out Israel for discriminatory treatment, the UN not only violates the equality guarantee of its own charter, but denies Jews their basic right to peoplehood. The medieval depiction of the Jew as poisoner of the well has become transposed into the Jewish state as, in the words of a senior adviser to Annan, “the great poison in the region.”
Prejudice against Israel pervades the UN. Paradoxically, the Commission on Human Rights offers itself as a case study of this bigotry. At last year’s session in March and April, I observed no fewer than seven instances of gross discrimination against the Jewish state.
First, approximately 25% of the debates were dedicated to attacking Israel. Second, out of the commission’s 10 country-specific resolutions, five targeted Israel. Third, while one agenda item examined the human rights violations of all 191 states, an entirely separate item was devoted exclusively to scrutinizing Israel. Fourth, Israel was the only state denied full admission into any of the five regional groups. Every morning during the six-week session, while 190 countries met for vital consultations within their regional groups, the Israeli representative was — literally — left standing in the corridor.
Fifth, many of the commission’s independent experts disproportionately censure Israel. If Palestinian men beat their wives, says Yakin Ertürk, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, it’s Israel’s fault. Sixth, last year’s session convened but one emergency sitting — not for the million-plus victims of Darfur, who were virtually ignored, but to condemn Israel for killing Ahmed Yassin, head of the Hamas terrorist group, who was eulogized as a “spiritual leader.” Seventh, side events sponsored by NGOs frequently cast Israel as the ultimate villain. When the International Commission of Jurists held a debate on Israel’s security barrier in the West Bank, they failed to invite a single panelist to present Israel’s position.
Kofi Annan has promised that “the fight against anti-Semitism must be our fight, and Jews everywhere must feel that the United Nations is their home, too.” To accomplish that, the UN must recognize Monday’s event as just the beginning.
Hillel C. Neuer is executive director of UN Watch in Geneva, Switzerland.
director@unwatch.org
Hey Emet. Yoo hoo! Did your UN contract expire?
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