Danon: Ilhan Omar, Jeremy Corbyn need to be removed from office
“Israel represents 0.1% of the world population, but Israel receives 78% of the UN condemnations – not Iran, not Syria, not Yemen, not North Korea, but Israel. The hypocrisy is mind blowing.”
By HERB KEINONIsrael's Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, speaks at the Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Public officials who “support and endorse antisemitism,” such as US Rep. Ilhan Omar and British Labour Party head Jeremy Corbyn, should be removed from office, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Sunday at The Jerusalem Post conference in New York.“Antisemitism is on the rise, and we cannot and will not ignore it,” Danon said. “Unfortunately also here in the US we hear remarks from public officials – member of Congress Ilhan Omar, in the UK, Mr. Corbyn – public officials who support and endorse antisemitism. We all have the obligation to condemn them, we have the obligation to isolate them, and we have the obligation to remove them from public office.”Danon, who has been Israel’s envoy at the UN for the last four years, said he wanted to share some numbers about antisemitism.“Israel represents 0.1% of the world population, but Israel receives 78% of the UN condemnations – not Iran, not Syria, not Yemen, not North Korea, but Israel. The hypocrisy is mind blowing.”Danon related how a few weeks after the terrorist attack against a mosque in New Zealand in March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan put forward a resolution that condemned Islamophobia, but not antisemitism. Danon spearheaded efforts to ensure that such a resolution would only pass if it included a condemnation of antisemitism as well, and that the result was that for the first time – paradoxically thanks to Erdogan, whose own rhetoric is sometimes laced with antisemitism – a resolution passed in the UN General Assembly condemning antisemitism.“We have to stand tall and take the initiative,” Danon said.He said that at his initiative, and in cooperation with Israel’s friends at the UN, in 10 days – on June 26 – a special session will be held in the UN dealing with antisemitism.“The UN is talking about antisemitism because we will not be quiet while we see rampant antisemitism in Europe, in the US, and around the world,” he said. “It is the responsibility of all countries to protect their Jewish citizens. We are not in a post-antisemitism era, but I am optimistic that we can get there. We will confront, we will challenge, and we will not be silenced.”Danon said he has no qualms about quoting from the Bible in the Security Council to show the Jewish people’s right to the land of Israel. If biblical rights are not sufficient, he said, he cites history, international law and that when Israel is in “control of Jerusalem, there is peace and security.”
