Racism and racial discrimination – CHR – NGO statement

RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, XENOPHOBIA AND ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION 

Written statement* submitted by the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists and the World Jewish Congress (WJC), non-governmental organizations in special consultative status

  The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.

[3 February 2004]

* This written statement is issued, unedited, in the language(s) received from the submitting non-governmental organization(s).

Dissemination of racist and anti-Semitic hate material on television programs

  The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IAJLJ) and the World Jewish Congress (WJC) have provided detailed information to the 59 ^th session of the Commission on Human Rights (the Commission ), both in a written and oral statements concerning a TV series entitled “ Knight Without a Horse”, screened by the Egyptian state television.

  Other NGOs have submitted similar corroboratory information.

  This scurrilous racist production, featuring the notorious forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Protocols ) was screened during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan 2002 in Egypt as well as in other Arab and Muslim countries.

  The Commission failed to condemn the televising of this series that was brought to its attention. The Special Rapporteur in his report merely mentioned that he had received information from NGOs on this series.

  The failure has encouraged a Syrian company, assisted by the Syrian government and by Al-Manar Hizbollah TV in Lebanon, to produce a similar series, entitled “The Diaspora” (“Al-Shatat ”). This production is again based on the traditional virulently antisemitic canards found in the Protocols and was screened on Al-Manar TV and other satellite services throughout the Middle East and beyond.

  Should Syrian officials deny their government’s encouragement and assistance to this production, they are requested to provide an explanation of the credits at the end of each episode, specially thanking the Syrian Defence Ministry, the Culture Ministry, the Damascus Police commanders and other official Syrian bodies for their contribution.

  As was the case with the Egyptian series, the Diaspora has also been timed to coincide with the Moslem festival of Ramadan, in order to ensure maximum impact in terms of incitement to genocidal hatred and racist opprobrium against Jews, Israel and Zionism.

  This series undoubtedly represents one of the most despicable and vile examples of racist incitement to hatred and violence against Jews, which rivals the worst excesses of Nazi antisemitic propaganda. It depicts the deliberately falsified history of the Jews and presents a maliciously distorted portrayal of Zionism. It presents Jews as seeking to control the world by means of a secret global Jewish government and accuses them of being directly responsible, among other things, for the following:

Starting the Russo-Japanese war; assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo; starting WWII; the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ; helping Hitler annihilate the Jews of Europe; toppling the Ottoman Sultan; deposing Czar Nicholas II; starting the Kishniev pogroms; torturing and murdering a Jew who married a Christian; murdering Czar Alexander III in Russia ; spying for Germany against France; inventing chemical weapons; murdering emigrating Jews who tried to turn back to Europe and killing many other characters depicted in the series in a various way and being responsible for numerous other catastrophes and criminal acts.

  Episode 20 of this series, screened on Nov. 18, 2003, actually depicts Jewish leaders as committing the murder of a Christian boy to drain his blood for Passover Matzoth, which is then presented as being consumed during Passover by Jews. This is just one graphic illustration of the violation of every human rights value to which the UN is committed. In particular, it is a blatant violation of Article 4 (c) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and Article 20 paragraph (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

  The series’ creators repeatedly stated to viewers that everything they were seeing was the truth. Due to the criticism of last year’s Egyptian series, the Diaspora creators prepared a purported justification of the series and included a disclaimer at every opportunity stating that it was based not on the Protocols but on documents and books allegedly written by Jews and Israelis.

  Nevertheless, not only did the plot of the series focus on a secret Jewish global government as described in the Protocols, but also Episode 22 actually presented a scene taken from it. In this episode, the "global Jewish government" convenes to celebrate the deaths of 1,000,000 in WWII, and their leader explains why killing Europe's Jews supposedly served the goals of their secret government: "The greater the number of Jews killed in this war, the more readily will we be able to convince the world that the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ is nothing more than a lie invented by the Christian world to increase people's hatred for the Jews…”.

  The Palestinian Authority (PA) often asserts as part of its propaganda that Zionist ideology is based on the Protocols . It constantly presents the forgery as a plot that supposedly existed and upon which Zionism is based.

The following are examples of the use of the Protocols in PA media and education:

The official PA daily in its “Political National Education” page, cited precise quotations from Protocols 2 and 12 to explain Israeli policy and states:
"The ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion ’ did not ignore the importance of using propaganda to promote the Zionist goals”.
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, January 25, 2001]

In another article, the “ Protocols ” are presented as the Jews’ road map in building Israel: 

“…I focused on important dates in the world of the Zionism and the Arabs:
“1. In 1897 the first Zionist Congress was held in Basel…
“2. In 1907 the actual immigration operation began…
“3. In 1917 the woeful declaration of Balfour was made…
"9. In 1977 the visit which shocked the Arab Nation occurred, the President of Egypt visited Israel…
"Every ten years, a vital aim is achieved. These are The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , of a century, from 1897 till 1997. They have planned and accomplished. Every ten years, another aim was achieved, proving their continuity and their power…”
[Al Quds, July 10, 2001]

Israeli military action is defined as following the script of the Protocols :

“The purpose of the military policy is to impose this situation on the residents and force them to leave their homes, and this is done in the framework of the Protocols of Zion…”
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 18, 2001]

The Jews are accused of changing the Bible, writing the Talmud and concluding with the Protocols:
Sheikh Attiyeh Sahar, Chairman of the Department of Islamic Research in The Al-Zahar University:
”…We also know that they changed the Bible and replaced it, because it does not serve their purposes, and they drafted the Talmud, as it is known, and came up, finally, with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
[PA TV, September 10, 2000]

 The genocidal character of the Protocols has been tragically proved by the use for which it was designed, namely as a means of deliberate incitement to hatred and violence against Jews on a massive scale. Copies of the Protocols are often carried by terrorists going on their deadly mission.

  Given the deliberately murderous intent of the Protocols as used by Adolph Hitler and quoted extensively in Mein Kampf , it can no longer be acceptable for the Commission to refrain from condemning these manifestations in the severest terms. Failure to do so after the second occasion on which irrefutable proof has been placed before the Commission of the Protocols use by three States, Egypt in 2002, Syria and Lebanon in 2003 which licensed the Hizbollah TV station falling under Lebanon’s authority, would seriously redound to the Commission’s discredit. There can be no possible doubt that these three states, together with the Palestine Authority, are all in grave breach of these fundamental international human rights norms by which they are unquestionably bound.

  Should the Commission on Human Rights fail to roundly condemn these parties for vicious and heinous incitement to incendiary racism of the most appalling kind, it would constitute a serious blow to its moral authority as the guardian of universal human rights standards. The Commission is thus also urged to bring these grave breaches of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination to the attention of the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination inviting them to hold these states’ representatives accountable for their countries’ violations of the respective provisions by which they are bound.

  This statement contains information received from the Palestinian Media Watch: http://www.pmw.org.il and from the Middle East Research Institute: http://www.memri.org whose websites can be accessed directly for further documentation.

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