“06880” reader Bob Neumann writes:
Last night, 60 Westporters protested the United Nations’ appearance in town in the person of Undersecretary-General Christian Saunders.
It was the third time in 2 years that we have protested the UN’s appearance, and it’s important that the town understand why we do it.
Whatever good work the UN does in attacking poverty and providing elegant meeting rooms for debate, it is also a deeply anti-Semitic organization, and it has been at least since 1975, when it declared Zionism is racism — when it declared that the world’s one Jewish nation, built from the ashes of the Holocaust, had no right to exist as a Jewish state.
These photos are from last night’s protest at the Imperial Avenue parking lot, near the Westport Library.
The UN, its agencies and courts, demonize Israel. They have attempted to isolate it, to strangle it, to boycott it, to force it into actions they dictate. And they might well have succeeded without US vetoes.
More recently, through the actions of UNRWA, the UN bears some direct responsibility for the butchery of October 7. (Mr. Saunders, it must be noted, was Acting Commissioner of UNRWA in 2020.)
UNRWA encouraged the self-destructive beliefs of Gazans that they were still refugees who would eventually return to live inside Israel, and educated its young with textbooks that demonized Israel and Jews. The result has been a generation of radicalized young Gazans intent not on building their own country but on destroying their neighbor — Israel.
Further, by pouring money and aid into Gaza, UNRWA in effect left Hamas to build tunnels and buy weapons to further its murderous aims. Hamas leaders are actually on record saying it is not their job to protect Gazans — it is the job of the UN.
UNRWA and the UN also turned a blind eye for weeks or months to the savagery of October 7 and particularly the violence done to women. (Mr. Saunders is currently special coordinator on improving the United Nations response to sexual exploitation and abuse).
We ask Westporters to see the UN for what it is. The UN (as per UN Watch) passed 140 resolutions against Israel in the 7 years before October 7, and only 68 condemning other nations in total — including Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and other such states. The town would never invite an institution that similarly demonized any other group for racial, ethnic, gender preference or identity — so it must not invite the UN.
Some, such as the International Hospitality Committee, also known as the United Nations Association, Southwest CT Chapter, who bring the UN to Westport twice each year, argue that the institution is simply a forum that should not be blamed for the actions of its member states.
Do they really mean to tell us that the UN, meant to stand for a better, inclusive future, should not be blamed for both failing and for intensifying the abuses heaped on Israel? Who would ever make excuses for, say, a PTA whose member parents demanded use of racist textbooks?
To ask the question is to laugh without reply. The UN, more than a forum, is the world’s largest hotbed of antisemitic, anti-Israel, and anti-Zionist rhetoric.
A video preceding Mr. Saunders’ speech illustrated some of the good work the UN does in impoverished regions. We demand that the respect and dignity the UN accords others must be given Israel.
Inside the Westport Library. (All photos courtesy of #EndJewHatred)
If the UN can’t pass that very low bar of decency, it must not be welcomed here. It shouldn’t be welcome anywhere, really, but especially not in a town where so many know firsthand from their families of the abuse Jewish people have faced in many corners of the world.
Please note that we do not seek to squelch legitimate criticism of the policies of Israel’s government. Israelis do it themselves — it’s practically a national sport.
People are entitled to their opinions. But the UN, an international forum, is not entitled to repeatedly denounce Israel alone in a world filled with nations that richly do deserve a denunciation they never receive.
The UN demonizes Israel. Unless and until it finds a way to reform itself, to rid itself of its antisemitic poison, the town of Westport and its people should not welcome it back. Surely we can find other ways to celebrate international community without inviting an organization who raises its voice loudly day after day in denunciation of the world’s one Jewish State.
We were respectfully silent yesterday in our protest, but I’m going to end with a shout to the United Nations: Treat Israel and world Jewry with the respect and dignity you treat everyone else. If you can’t bring yourself to do that — we don’t want you here. Stay home.
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