[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 240 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 240
Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding manifestations of anti-
Semitism by United Nations member states and urging action against
anti-Semitism by United Nations officials, United Nations member
states, and the Government of the United States, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 15, 2005
Mr. Santorum (for himself, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Smith, Ms. Collins, Mr.
Coleman, Mr. Voinovich, Mr. Brownback, Mr. Allen, Mr. Burr, Mr. Coburn,
Mr. Vitter, Mr. Bunning, Mr. Nelson of Florida, Mr. Nelson of Nebraska,
Mr. Martinez, Mr. DeWine, and Mr. Biden) submitted the following
resolution; which was considered and agreed to
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding manifestations of anti-
Semitism by United Nations member states and urging action against
anti-Semitism by United Nations officials, United Nations member
states, and the Government of the United States, and for other
purposes.
Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, approved by the United
Nations General Assembly in 1948, recognizes that ``the inherent dignity
and equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is
the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world'';
Whereas United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 (1975) concluded that
``Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination'' and the
General Assembly, by a vote of 111 to 25, only revoked Resolution 3379
in 1991 in response to strong leadership by the United States and after
Israel made its participation in the Madrid Peace Conference conditional
upon repeal of the resolution;
Whereas during the 1991 session of the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights, the Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations repeated the
outrageous ``blood libel'' that Jews allegedly have killed non-Jewish
children to make unleavened bread for Passover and, despite repeated
interventions by the Governments of Israel and the United States, this
outrageous lie was not corrected in the record of the Commission for
many months;
Whereas in March 1997, the Palestinian observer at the United Nations Commission
on Human Rights made the contemptible charge that the Government of
Israel had injected 300 Palestinian children with HIV (the human
immunodeficiency virus, the pathogen that causes AIDS) despite the fact
that an Egyptian newspaper had printed a full retraction to its earlier
report of the same charges, and the President of the Commission failed
to challenge this baseless and false accusation despite the request of
the Government of Israel that he do so;
Whereas Israel was denied membership in any regional grouping of the United
Nations until the year 2000, which prevented it from being a candidate
for any elected positions within the United Nations system until that
time, and Israel continues to be denied the opportunity to hold a
rotating seat on the Security Council and it is the longest-serving
member of the United Nations never to have served on the Security
Council although it has been a member of the organization for 56 years;
Whereas Israel continues to be denied the opportunity to serve as a member of
the United Nations Commission on Human Rights because it has never been
included in a slate of candidates submitted by a regional grouping, and
Israel is currently the only member of the Western and Others Group in a
conditional status limiting its ability to caucus with its fellow
members of this regional grouping;
Whereas the United Nations has permitted itself to be used as a battleground for
political warfare against Israel led by Arab states and others, and 6 of
the 10 emergency sessions of the United Nations General Assembly have
been devoted to criticisms of and attacks against Israel;
Whereas the goals of the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism
were undermined by hateful anti-Jewish rhetoric and anti-Israel
political agendas, prompting both Israel and the United States to
withdraw their delegations from the Conference;
Whereas in 2004, the United Nations Secretary General acknowledged at the first
United Nations-sponsored conference on anti-Semitism, that: ``It is
clear that we are witnessing an alarming resurgence of this phenomenon
in new forms and manifestations. This time, the world must not--cannot--
be silent.'';
Whereas in 2004, the United Nations General Assembly's Third Committee for the
first time adopted a resolution on religious tolerance that includes
condemnation of anti-Semitism and ``recognized with deep concern the
overall rise in instances of intolerance and violence directed against
members of many religious communities . . . including . . . anti-
Semitism . . .'';
Whereas in 2005, the United Nations held an unprecedented session to commemorate
the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration
camp;
Whereas democratic Israel is annually the object of nearly two dozen redundantly
critical resolutions in the United Nations General Assembly, which
rarely adopts resolutions relating to specific countries; and
Whereas the viciousness with which Israel is attacked and discriminated against
at the United Nations should not be allowed to continue unchallenged:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That--
(1) the Senate--
(A) welcomes recent attempts by the United Nations
Secretary General to address the issue of anti-
Semitism;
(B) calls on the leadership of the United Nations
to officially and publicly condemn anti-Semitic
statements made at all United Nations meetings and hold
accountable United Nations member states that make such
statements; and
(C) strongly urges the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to
develop and implement education awareness programs
about the Holocaust throughout the world as part of an
effort to combat the rise in anti-Semitism and racial,
religious, and ethnic intolerance; and
(2) it is the sense of the Senate that--
(A) the President should direct the United States
Permanent Representative to the United Nations to
continue working toward further reduction of anti-
Semitic language and anti-Israel resolutions;
(B) the President should direct the Secretary of
State to report on acts of anti-Semitism at the United
Nations and United Nations agencies by member states;
and
(C) projects funded through the Middle East
Partnership Initiative and United States overseas
broadcasts should include efforts to educate Arab and
Muslim countries about anti-Semitism, religious
intolerance, and incitement to violence.
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