Jewish leaders welcome UN resolution on Holocaust denial
The world lives "in an era in which fiction is now becoming fact, and the Holocaust is becoming a distant memory".
Jewish community leaders in Australia have welcomed a United Nations resolution condemning denial and distortion of the Holocaust. It is only the second time in UN history that a resolution authored by Israel has been passed by the world body.
The resolution was approved in the presence of a group of Holocaust survivors on the 80th anniversary of the notorious Wannsee Conference, when top Nazi officials planned and coordinated the genocide of the Jewish people.
Introducing the resolution, Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan, a grandson of Holocaust victims, said the world lives “in an era in which fiction is now becoming fact, and the Holocaust is becoming a distant memory”.
According to the resolution, this genocide “will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice”.
It also urges all member states to “reject without any reservation any denial or distortion of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, or any activities to this end”.
Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said, “The UN was created following the horrors of the Holocaust and Second World War. But as memory of that war fades, so too do the lessons of the Holocaust among too many people. This resolution, and its encouragement of countries to implement Holocaust educational programs, will help prevent the world from forgetting the lessons of the war and the Holocaust.”
Thanking and congratulating the Australian government for being a co-sponsor of the resolution, he added, “If the UN really did want to internalise the lessons of the Holocaust, it would stop discriminating against the world’s only Jewish state, and work to undermine those who wish to enact a second Holocaust, this time on the State of Israel.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Peter Wertheim described the UN resolution as “a rare and welcome bright spot on an otherwise bleak UN landscape”.
“There is more than a touch of irony in the UN recognising how important it is to inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide, while at the same time undermining one of the most important of those lessons, the justice and necessity of a Jewish homeland in the land of Israel, through resolutions and reports which demonise Israel in the same way in which Jews have been demonised, and which strike at Israel’s legitimacy and right to defend itself.”
Welcoming the UN resolution, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein paid tribute to the Australian government’s “continued, principled commitment to preserving the truth about the Holocaust”.
“Holocaust denial and distortion are insidious and must be relentlessly confronted and condemned, while the Shoah’s historical record must forever be protected. Education and awareness of its unmitigated evil and disastrous consequences must be maintained and extended … and this resolution was a positive signal that it will be.
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