Libya slams UN walkout over Holocaust remark

[SpikeTss]

Source: Reuters


TRIPOLI, April 30 - Libya stands by its U.N. envoy's comparison of the plight of Palestinians in Gaza to the Holocaust and deplores a walkout by Western diplomats in protest at the comments, official Libyan media reported on Wednesday.

Libya's Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of France, Belgium and Britain and the U.S. charge d'affaires and asked them to explain the April 23 walkout at the U.N. Security Council, the Jana news agency reported.

Western U.N. envoys walked out of a Council discussion that day after a Libyan diplomat likened the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to the Nazi Holocaust

...

Diplomats said the remarks were made in a speech by Libya's deputy permanent U.N. representative Ibrahim Dabbashi, who also holds the title of ambassador.

Among the diplomats who left the council chamber were the U.S., French, British, Belgian and Costa Rican envoys, diplomats have said. Some others remained.Such protests against fellow Security Council members are rare, diplomats said.

U.S. envoy to the U.N. Alejandro Wolff said the Libyan remarks "reflect a degree of historical ignorance and moral insensitivity".

Six million Jews were systematically murdered by Nazi Germany in the Holocaust during World War II.



Read more: http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnAMA057583.html

[izquierdista]

1. Explanation

It comes right out of Orwell's "Animal Farm": all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. Palestinians obviously aren't as equal as one would think. :sarcasm:

[DavidDvorkin]

3. So what's happening in Gaza IS equivalent to the Holocaust?

[izquierdista]

4. I posted two pictures earlier

One of the wall in the Lodz ghetto and one of the wall Israel is building. Remarkable similarities. Can't compare the two stories and say they are equivalent, since the current wall is a work in progress.

[Indenturedebtor]

6. Yes because the Jews in Germany

were trying to kill the Germans :eyes:

Can I ask you this, in your version of history have the Palestinians done anything to merit hostility by Israel?

[izquierdista]

8. Not go quietly?

When their homes were being bulldozed? :shrug:

[DavidDvorkin]

9. So the Holocaust consisted of confining the Jews in ghettos?

The ghettos existed long before the Nazis and the Holocaust. The Holocaust was considerably more than that.

Where are the Israeli death camps? Where is the plan for a Final Solution?

[Indenturedebtor]

5. Oh please

The Palestinians aren't being systematically exterminated. Don't undermine the cause of the Palestinians by being onesided.

[LeftishBrit]

2. Libya should look to its own human rights record, before calling others Nazis.

[BearSquirrel2]

7. Obviously ....

We obviously don't have access to the photos of camps where Israel trucks in starving Palestinians, gasses them to death and then cremates all the bodies.

Apparently, Israel has blitzkrieged across the whole Mideast and subjugated each and every population to the master Jewish race. Israel did not conquer the Middle East executing anyone who would not convert. I'm pretty sure that would be Muhammad.

[Boojatta]

10. You're pretty sure, but you're wrong.

If he had executed them all, then who would have been the second-class citizens who paid a special tax not paid by Muslims?

[SpikeTss]

11. 'This Is What Happens When ‘Terrorists’ Given Council Seat'

Another update on this story:

http://www.forward.com/articles/13295/

United Nations -Libya’s place on the United Nations Security Council never promised to be a smooth ride, but the North African nation’s brashness since joining the council last year has become a major headache for the world body.

After months of simmering tensions over Libya’s aggressive posturing, matters came to a head last week when several Western envoys took the unusual step of walking out of a Security Council session after the Libyan envoy compared the situation in Gaza to Nazi concentration camps.

Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Dan Gillerman, warned that this was a result of opening the Security Council to a “terrorist state,” a swipe at Washington’s decision last year to lift its decades-long opposition to Libya’s candidacy to a council seat

...

The United States had opposed Libya’s candidacy to become one of the 10 nonpermanent members of the council two years ago, but Washington changed tack last year and did not oppose Tripoli’s two-year membership when it was presented by the Arab group.

Since taking his country’s seat on the council, Libya’s ambassador, Ibrahim Dabbashi, has exchanged accusations of state terrorism with Israeli officials and blocked compromises on a number of resolutions or statements. In early March, Libya backed out, at the last minute, of a compromise on a presidential statement on Gaza, which requires the unanimous approval of the council’s 15 members. A few days later, Libya refused to support a council statement condemning a Palestinian gunman’s killing of eight Israeli seminary students in Jerusalem unless the statement also included a condemnation of Israeli actions in Gaza.

“This is what happens when the Security Council is infiltrated by terrorists,” Gillerman declared at the time ...