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Friday, August 15, 1980 25
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Zionism Listed as World Evil in Plan
of UN Decade for Women's Conference
COPENHAGEN (JTA) —
The world conference of the
United Nations Decade for
Women ended here with an
overwhelming 94-4 vote for
a 186-point "plan of action"
which included a paragraph
that listed Zionism as one of
the world's main evils,
long with colonialism and
partheid.
There were 22 absten-
tions, mostly by Western
European countries. .
The United States,
Canada, Israel and Au-
stralia voted against the
document because of the
anti-Zionist statement.
Sarah Weddington (Mrs.
Philip Power of Ann Arbor),
head of the U.S. delegation,
declared after the vote that
"the conference was sub-
verted from focussing on
women's real issues by the
political polemics of the
Middle East crisis."
The final document
also contained a proviso
that all UN funds for
Palestinian women refu-
gees be channeled
through the Palestine
Liberation Organization,
a singular victory for the
PLO.
The paragraph, which in
effect declared Zionism to be
racist and colonialist, was
submitted by Cuba when
the conference opened as an
amendment to the "plan of
action."
The anti-Israel mood of
the gathering was further
manifested by its extension
of official recognition to the
PLO delegation, headed by
airline hijacker Leila
Khaled. The PLO prev-
iously had only observer
status.
The conference, attended
by 1,200 delegates repre-
senting 136 of the 152
member states of the UN,
was heavily weighted in
favor of the Arabs because
of the preponderance of
Moslem, Third World, non-
aligned and Soviet-bloc na-
tions. Each country had a
single vote.
Nevertheless, the U.S.
appealed to the confer-
ence to show a spirit of
moderation and com-
promise when discussing
resolutions, amendments
d political proposals.
(In Washington, Bnai
Brith International called
n Congress to block U.S.
to any UN
agencies that fund opera-
tions of the PLO.)
But that was not the case.
The anti-Israel, pro-Third
World tenor of the confer-
ence continued, as described
in the following reports.
The day after Arab ter-
rorist grenades killed one
Jewish 15-year-old boy and
injured 20 other persons in
Antwerp, Belgium,
Ovadiah Safer, a member
of the Israeli delegation to
the UN Decade for Women
Conference, requested the
floor at one of the plenary
sessions.
Complying with a rule
that such requests be sec-
onded by another nation,
the United States eagerly
volunteered its support. In-
stead of giving the floor to
the Israeli delegate, the ses-
sion chairman promptly ad-
journed the meeting.
Esther Landa, a
member of the official
U.S. delegation to the
conference and a past
president of the National
Council of Jewish
Women, said that "the
really evil thing is that
this is the second time a
women's conference has
been used for (anti-
Zionist) purposes" and
has been followed by an
anti-Zionist vote from the
UN General Assembly.
The first time a UN
women's conference suf-
fered such politicization
was at the beginning of the
UN Decade for Women in
1975, in Mexico City. That
conference was followed by
a UN General Assembly
vote equating Zionism with
racism.
The second such vote was
this past July 29 when a
resolution was passed cal-
ling for Israel to withdraw
from all the occupied ter-
ritories, including
Jerusalem.
Not only Israel, but all
democratic countries were
subjected to bias in
Copenhagen, Landa said.
Within the parameters
of U.S. foreign policy, the
official delegation mem-
bers tried to thwart the
virulent anti-Israel at-
tacks. She added that de-
spite U.S. efforts on be-
half of a "strong defense
of Israel" it was "rather
difficult to get the floor
because chairs of the ses-
sions were not too recep-
tive to interruptions from
the U.S. or other demo-
cratic countries."
"Once the conference was
politicized it was unrealistic
to expect any results differ-
ing from those in New York
(at the UN). The American
Jewish community was
naive because • we thought
that by exerting pressure on
the U.S. government to de-
politicize the conference
that we could accomplish
that," Landa said. But the
cold facts are "we do not
have the votes. The other
side in the UN accom-
plished their goals because
they have the votes and Is-
rael is the object of all their
animosity and hatred," she
observed.
Bernice Tannenbaum,
president of Hadassah, who
represented the World
Jewish Congress as a non-
governmental organization
with consultative status at
the conference, echoes the
sentiments of Mrs. Landa.
"I was appalled by the
bias of those in the chair,
the secretariat, the United
Nations special agencies,
and by the lack of ordinary
proper procedures," she
said.
I came (to the confer-
ence) hoping that it
would not be politicized
and we would talk about
world issues," but "the
PLO was there in full
force, they busted up
whatever meeting they
were not happy with"
and "ostentatiously
walked out in droves"
whenever a member of
the Israeli delegation
spoke, continued Tan-
nenbaum.
Jihan Sadat, wife of the
Egyptian president, had
several private meetings
with Chava Hareli, Israel's
ambassador to Norway, ac-
cording to Tannenbaum.
"The Egyptians were warm
and proper until Mrs. Sadat
left" at which time they
kept "a low profile," she
said.
Despite Mrs. Sadat's
words on behalf of Israel,
the official Egyptian dele-
gation was directed to vote
for adoption of the final
"Plan of Action" with its
condemnation of Israel.
Amid all the isolation,
Tannenbaum reported, "the
Danish community was
stalwart, both Jews, and
non-Jews."
Danes equate anti-
Israel sentiment with
anti-Semitism, a phe-
nomenon with which
they are not familiar,
Tannenbaum observed.
To counter pro-PLO
propaganda, about 100
Danes, Jews and non-
Jews, demonstrated in
front of the building
housing the conference
wearing yellow Stars of
David on their arms, car-
rying Danish and Israeli
flags, and singing
Hatikva, Israel's national
anthem. Within minutes
they were joined by other
conference delegates
singing Israeli songs.
Frieda Leemon, national
president of Pioneer
Women, said she "felt
threatened and isolated" as
a Jewish participant at the
world conference.
Leemon, who attended
the three-week open forum
at Copenhagen University
which paralleled the main
conference, said she ex-
pected anti-Israel prop-
aganda to come out of the
conference when she chose
to go as Pioneer Women's
representative.
But what she never ex-
pected, Leemon said with
some anger during an
interview with the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, was
the widespread influence of
the Palestine Liberation
Organization borne out in
the proceedings.
"What I didn't know
was the amount of
strength that the PLO
had gained in the world,"
Leemon said. She added
that many Jews in the
forum section wanted to
talk with Arab women,
only to be told by a PLO
representative: "To you
we will talk with
weapons; to the rest of
the world we'llk talk with
words."
Third World, Communist
and PLO representatives at
the forum, which 8,000 per-
sons attended, expressed
fierce anti-Jewish senti-
ADL Intervenes in Worker's Case
ment, Leemon noted. There
was "a very well-organized
coalition of anti-white,
anti-American and anti-
Israel" representatives, and
she said the frequent walk-
outs and anti-Jewish public
statements may have been
organized in advance. "No-
body wanted to listen," she
said of the pro-PLO dele-
gates. "They came there
with preconceived notions."
Two JWV
Conventions
WASHINGTON — The
Jewish War Veterans of the
U.S.A. will hold their 85th
national convention in New
Orleans, Wednesday
through Aug. 24.
JWV's National Ladies
Auxiliary will hold their
53rd annual meeting, also
at the Fairmont Hotel in
New Orleans, beginning
Sunday.
Speakers at the JWV ses-
sions will include former Is-
raeli Prime Minister Yit-
zhak Rabin; Morris Amitay,
executive director of the
America Israel Public Af-
fairs Committee; and Max
Cleland, head of the Vete-
rans Administration.
Major speakers at the
Auxiliary's convention will
include Dr. Moshe Modi,
deputy director of the
Chaim Sheba Medical Cen-
ter in Israel; and June
Wakeford, deputy executive
director of the President's
Committee for Employment
of the Handicapped.
A major theme of the aux-
iliary will be the Interna-
tional Year for the Disabled
Person.
It is just as possible to
convert Jews as it is to con-
vert the devil.
— Martin Luther
NEW YORK — The
Anti-Defamation League of
Bnai Brith has asked a fed-
eral appellate court to come
to the aid of workers who
are fired because of their
religious pract'ces.
ADL filed an "amici
curiae" (friend-of-the-court)
brief with the U.S. Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals
urging it to uphold the con-
stitutionality of an amend-
ment of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act. This requires
employers to "reasonably
accommodate" these prac-
tices or observances if there
is no "undue hardship" to
the firm's business.
The Ninth Circuit Court
is considering an appeal
from David Anderson, a
member of the Seventh Day
Adventist Church, who was
fired by General Dynamics
Corp. because he refused to
join a union. A tenet of An-
derson's church holds that
its members should not be-
long or contribute to unions.
The brief was filed in con-
junction with the National
Jewish Commission on Law
and Public Affairs.
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