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Israel to block Irish UN religion motion
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2003/1212/31519
Friday, December 12, 2003 Irish Times
Israel is to try to block Ireland's annual UN resolution condemning religious intolerance, because it does not include a specific condemnation of anti-Semitism, writes Conor O'Clery, in New York
"As a reaction to the total failure of the UN to deal with anti-Semitism, Israel will abstain on the resolution, thereby forcing the Irish Ambassador to withdraw their resolution," Israel's ambassador to the UN, Mr Dan Gillerman, said in yesterday's Jerusalem Post.
However, diplomats at the UN said the resolution was approved by consensus last month by a pre-general assembly body, known as the 3rd Committee of the UN, and therefore no longer belonged to Ireland.
The motion is scheduled to go to the 191-member general assembly for approval, also by consensus, before the current session ends on December 16th. If Israel withholds support, the consensus will not be achieved.
Ireland, which has sponsored the resolution for 20 years, declined Israel's request this year to include a condemnation of anti-Semitism, on the grounds that it would lead to the perception of a hierarchy of religious intolerance and detract from the resolution's universal scope.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, instead promised Israel's Foreign Minister, Mr Silvan Shalom, that Ireland would put forward a separate anti-Semitism resolution.
Ireland obtained sponsorship from the EU and several other countries for such a resolution but withdrew it last week after Arab and Muslim states demanded changes.
"Unfortunately it did not prove possible to sway the wider membership of the assembly, notwithstanding a willingness on the part of Ireland and the other sponsors to introduce balancing language containing condemnation of anti-Semitism and anti-Arabism," said Mr Damien Cole, Irish mission spokesman, in a letter to the Wall Street Journal.
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