Israel Matzav

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Convene the Geneva Conventions high contracting parties?

United Nations Watch has put together a coalition of human rights groups to oppose the election of Syria to the United Nations 'Human Rights Council.' Elections are scheduled for May 20. Syria is running unopposed.

Led by UN Watch, an independent human rights monitoring group based in Geneva, the coalition of rights groups from Africa, Asia, the U.S. and Europe, (see list of members below) also urged action from the UN Security Council and other international bodies to protect Syria's civilian population from government actions that it said may amount to "war crimes and crimes against humanity."

The election of 15 new council members is scheduled for May 20 at the UN General Assembly in New York. However, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said that "if the council this week declares President Bashar al-Assad unwelcome as a member, it would sound the death knell for Syria's cynical candidacy to be elected a global judge of human rights."

The coalition called for leadership from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton, Ban Ki-moon, and UN rights chief Navi Pillay.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that leadership. On the other hand, you all know that I believe Syria would fit right in at the 'Human Rights Council' anyway.

What's perhaps more intriguing in Neuer's efforts is this.

Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey was asked to convene the high contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions to address the Syrian army's grave assault on thousands of civilians who are protected as non-combatants under the treaties.

That's a nice idea but there are two small problems with it. First, Calmy-Rey is a loon who's enamored with Bashar al-Assad's friend Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The odds of her convening this type of meeting to condemn Assad are not good.

Second, if such a meeting were to be convened, I would bet on the agenda being hijacked to discuss Israel - and more specifically the Goldstone Report.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Geneva Convention, Goldstone Report, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Operation Cast Lead, Syria, Syrian uprising, United Nations Human Rights Council, United Nations Watch

Friday, March 04, 2011

Rabbi attacked in Switzerland

The assistant rabbi of a synagogue in Lausanne, Switzerland was attacked by three 'youths' last Wednesday night as he was leaving his synagogue. Two of the 'youths' were caught after passersby stopped the attack, and the rabbi is pressing charges against them.

CICAD called the incident the "worst attack of anti-semitism in Switzerland in recent years." This is surprising, in that just two years ago, CICAD reported on a “sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts [in Switzerland],” and lamented the "unresponsive" Swiss authorities. There were with 38 attacks in 2007 and 96 in 2008; statistics on attacks since then are unavailable.

A poll conducted in Switzerland in 2007 showed that 41% of respondents thought that Jews have too much power in the business world, 40% believed that Jews have too much power in international financial markets, and 45% felt that Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust. Seventeen percent of the Swiss respondents agreed that the Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus.

You might recall that Swiss President Hans Rudolf Merz met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the Durban II conference in Geneva two years ago. Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has also been seen cackling with Ahmadinejad. Anyone else think those two factoids might be connected to the country's treatment of its Jews?

Labels: Durban II Conference, Hans Rudolf Merz, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Swiss anti-Semitism