UN should honour its mandate

The UN General Assembly is scheduled to hold a first special session on the so-called “global outbreak of anti-Semitism” on January 22.

Israel is behind the move, which is, of course, supported by the US, Canada and several European countries.

The idea could be noble; nobody wishes to see a rise in intolerance and discrimination of any sort, anti-Semitism included.

Only, one is not exactly sure about the true intentions of such move, at least not until the resolution on the issue is drafted and circulated among the UN member states.

Instead of zeroing in on anti-Semitism, it behoves the sponsors of the UN meeting to widen its scope to cover other facets of hatred and discrimination against other peoples and religions.

Israel may want to capitalise on recent waves of attacks on Jewish communities and their places of worship in Europe, but the international community should be concerned about all criminal manifestations against minorities, including Islamophobia, which has been spreading in the West at alarming rates.

The projected UN conference should have a broader agenda that aims to address the woes and fears of not only one religious, ethnic or racial group, but of mankind in general.

That is, after all, what the UN is all about: to serve humanity at large and not to single out one problem while ignoring other, similar, issues.

In this vein, it has to be said that an anti-Semitic manifestation are Israeli policies against the Palestinians, another Semite people.

Once Israel change its policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians, granting them their rights and treating them as equals, there is no doubt that anti-Semitism — read, anti-Jews, to be more precise, exactly because, again, Arabs are Semites too — is bound to subside, starving goons of a reason to carry out criminal acts in the name of religion or the desire to “free Palestine”.