12 Friday, March 11, 1983

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

UN's Double Standard on Israel Is Reviewed

By JULIANA PILON

(Editor's note: Dr.
Juliana Geron Pion pre-
pared this report for the
Washington-based Heri-
tage Foundation's
United Nations Assess-
ment Project.)
The United Nations is
waging a war against Israel
and has been doing so for
years. The recent anti-
Israeli moves at the Inter-
national Atomic Energy
Agency, the International
Telecommunications Union
and even the General As-
sembly, are only the latest
instances of this.
It is not necessary to con-
done all the policy decisions
of the Isareli move into
Lebanon to recognize that
the UN's treatment of the
Jewish state in recent years
aMounts to sheer harass-
ment. Secretary of State
George Shultz's determina-
tion to leave any UN body
that expels Israel, echoing
the near-unanimous deci-
sion of Congress to that ef-
fect on May 13, 1982,
amounts to a refusal to go
along with the UN's double

standard.
Although the UN main-
tains an eerie silence about
such blatant human rights
violators as the Soviet
Union, Cuba, Pol Pot's
• Kampuchea, and Idi Amin's
-Uganda, Israel was con-
demned in 1982 as a "non-
peace-loving state" — the
only UN member so named.
Since the Charter restricts
UN membership to "peace-
loving" states, this lan-
guage opens the door to Is-
rael's expulsion from the
UN.
The UN's campaign
against Israel can be
traced back at least to
1967, following the Six-
Day War. Since then,
nearly 200 resolutions
hostile to Israel have
been adopted in the Se-
curity Council, the Gen-
eral Assembly and the
Commission on Human
Rights. In recent years
half the time of the Secu-
rity Council and half the
total of its resolutions
have condemned the
Jewish state, with practi-
cally no mention of PLO

and other Arab contribu-
tions to Middle East ten-
sions and violence.
The double standard is
glaring. A proposed Secu-
rity Council resolution in
1975 to condemn Israeli
raids on Palestinian targets
in Lebanon failed to men-
tion Arab violence against
Israel.
The anti-Israel campaign
pervades the entire UN sys-
tem. In the last decade Is-
raeli participation has been
attacked in virtually every
example, is no longer a
member of the Commission
on Human 'Rights though
most of the commission's
members have far worse
human rights records than
Israel.
Israel is also the only
country in the world subject
to special sanctions by the
UN Educational Scientific
and Cultural Organizattion
(UNESCO). Though Israel
and South Africa were con-
demned as "an unholy al-
liance" by the General As-
sembly in Resolution 3151
G (XXVII) of Dec. 14, 1973,
not even South Africa is

subjected to such sanctions.
The watershed year at the
UN was 1974: on Nov. 13,
the General Assembly ses-
sion was addressed by PLO
chief Yasir Arafat. For the
first time in its history, the
UN extended observer
status to a non-nation.
In November and De-
cember of that year, UN-
ESCO's general conference
approved a series of resolu-
tions condemning Israel on
various grounds and block-
ing its requested member-
ship in the organization's
European regional group-
ing. UNESCO specifically
condemned Israel for al-
legedly endangering Mos-
lem monuments in
Jerusalem — a charge later
shown to be unfounded. The
organization then cut off all
funds for Israeli projects.

A year later, UNESCO
inserted into an official
document a reference to
the infamous "Zionism is
racism" General Assem-
bly resolution 3379
(XXX), a document that
infuriated even long-time

UN's new majority. Ig-
noring, at times, both
facts and legal pro-
visions, this majority has
chosen to chastize Israel
while worse human
rights offenders go com-
pletely without reproof
and Arab hostilities and
terrorist acts go unmen-
tioned.
Whatever its transgres-
sions — and surely no state
is devoid of sins — Israel
does not deserve to be de-
nied participation in the
General Assembly and
membership in the UN
agencies. Hit does, so do the
great majority of UN mem-
bers.
What does the UN have
against Israel? It is a puzzle
— despite the thousands of
hours of rhetoric devoted to
the issue. Indeed, it seems
that the UN can make no
solid, juridical or moral case
against Israel.
As such, the UN majority
— cowed by the Soviet bloc
and radical Arab states —
resorts to a sordid double
standard. Israel deserves
better. So does the UN.

supporters of the UN.
On May 17 1976, the
World Health Organization
refused to consider an ex-
pert committee's report that
health services in Israeli-
occupied Arab territories,
far from having deter-
iorated, have seen a "slow
but steady" improvement
since 1967.
This conclusion was not
what the Third World
majority at WHO was look-
ing for. It was therefore re-
jected despite the fact that
two of the three experts on
the committee were from
countries having no dip-
lomatic relations with Is-
rael.
Since 1975, the UN
majority has escalated its
attacks on Israel. About 40
resolutions passed by the
36th General Assembly in
1981 dealt with the Middle
East, invariably chastising
Israel while not mentioning
PLO attacks on Israeli civi-
lians, including women and
children.
For at least a decade-
and-a-half, Israel has
been badgered by the

Centennary Marked for Zionist Poet Laureate Jesse Sampter

By DR. DAVID GEFFEN

World Zionist Press Service

JERUSALEM — "Life
here feels new, wonderful
and free," Jessie Sampter
wrote in 1933 in- her intro-
duction to the volume
"Modern Palestine."
"Someone asked me
whether I planned a sepa-
rate chapter on the youth
movements of Palestine,
but the whole of Jewish re-
construction in Palestine is
a youth movement, which
does not mean that all its
workers are young. The
time of youth predominates,
but even more — the spirit
of youth."
Then she pointed out the
key challenge that had to be
faced, modern yet eternal.
"The chief anxiety and test
of the Halutzim, the young
pioneers, is the education of
their children in their own
spirit. The first pioneer
children are now growing
up. They are staying in
Palestine, staying on the
land. Hope follows their
movements."
When she was born in
New York on March 22,
1893' to a secular family
with no special Jewish iden-
tification, it was impossible
to predict that Jesse
Sampter would become an
American Zionist poet
laureate. After an early
childhood attack of polio left
her crippled, it was difficult
to foresee that she would
come to live in Palestine in
1919.
Once there, who would

have imagined that she
would set up classes for
Yemenite girls, adopt a
Yemenite orphan; tour
the pioneering settle-
ments of the Emek ,nad
depict them in verse, be-
come a member of Kibutz
Givat Brenner and con-
tribute the funds to build
a convalescent home
there?
Her early years were
spent in the serenity of an
uptown New York family
which was strongly commit-
ted to ethical concepts but
where no Jewish atmos-
phere was in evidence.
Quite early Jesse displayed
literary talent and in 1897
her first poem was pub-
lished.
Caught up in the
maelstrom of Zionist fervor
which filled New York in
the first decade of the 20th
Century, she came under
the influence of giants like
Henrietta Szold, Judah
Magnes and Mordecai Kap-
lan.
Henrietta Szold sensed
the depth of Zionist feeling
in Jesse Sampter and re-
cruited her into the newly-
created Hadassah organiza-
tion in 1912. Jesse was
given the responsibility of
preparing a basic handbook
on Zionism, and she proved
herself up to the task.
This major project was
financed by Justice Louis
Brandeis and became-the
volume entitled "A
Course in Zionism." A
collection of essays and,

JESSE SAMPTER

data on the roots of
Zionism, the Zionist
movement and its per-
sonalities, the book first
appeared in 1915. A
bestseller because of its
clarity and due to the
enthusiasm in some cir-
cles of American Jewry
for the Zionist cause, the
book was completely up-
dated and reissued in
1920 as "A Guide to
Zionism."
Following her aliya in
1919, Jesse Sampter was
asked to prepare a third edi-
tion which came to be
known as "Modern Pales-
tine." The change in the
title reflected not only a new
spirit in the wake of the Bal-
four Declaration but also
the fact that Jesse was now
actually residing in the
country itself.
Jesse initially lived in
Jerusalem where conditions
were extremely difficult.

She endured very heavy badly. Consequently we are
snowstorms during her first in great danger% . . We need
winter in the city. In Oc- a school of Prophets to go
tober 1920, she wrote home out alike to Arab and Jew,
about the food situation: "It to dwell as shepherds in the
is hard to get good milk, but Arab villages and explain
Dr. Helena Kagan has her and expound. They will be
own cow, so that problem is opposed by both Arab and
solved for us."
Jew, yet they will be none
While in Jerusalem she the less Jewish for Jewish
set up classes for Yemenite opposition."
working girls, and even
In 1938, Jesse Sampt.A.
adopted one, becoming a died at Kibbutz Givat
single parent at a- time Brenner where she had set-
when the custom was rare. tled in 1933. One of her con-
Moving to Rehovot in temporaries penned these
1922, she continued her lines of tribute in the He-
intensive efforts with brew press.
Yemenite working girls. Who has left us with the
Greatly desiring to see death of Jesse.
the budding settlements Our friend, but notjust ours.
in the Emek, she made a A friend of every flower and
tour of them by wagon in every child.
1926 (in spite of her phys- A friend not just of our gen-
ical disabilities). Her col- eration,
lection of prose poems but a woman in whose heart
entitled "The Emek" cap- lived the memory
tured the intensity of of countless generations,
these new settlements memories of the
and depicted the spirit of
the pioneers who inha-
bited them.
Of special interest was
her sensitivity to the Arab-
TEL AVIV (JTA) — A
Jewish question. In her ar-
ticle on the "Jewish Ideal of controversial Israeli play
Nationalism," she • stressed which religious elements in
a number of points in regard Israel sought to have
to the Arabs. She wrote that banned will open this year's
we must first "make the Edinburgh Festival, re-
Arabs realize that our eco- garded as one of the world's
nomic interests are identi- top artistic events. -
"Nefesh Yehudi" ("A
cal with theirs and our polit-
ical and cultural aims com- Jewish Soul"), by Yehoshua
plementary to theirs."
Sobol, presented by the
Our second task, she em- Haifa Theater, deals with
phasized, "is to develop our the last hours of Otto
institutions in such a way Weininger, a Jewish anti-
that they will give the Arab Semite who committed
masses the impetus and suicide in Austria in 1903,
possibility to attain an 'ap- at the age of 23. It includes
proximately equal standard three erotic scenes passed
of life with our own, that is, by the film and theatre cen-
in literacy, economic and sorship board only after its
social-hygenic conditions."
members had seen a full
Jesse realized the diffi- dress rehearsal. The scenes
culty of attaining such go- were condemned by reli-
als. But in her own dramatic gious leaders as "blasphem-
style she called for action. ous and offensive."
"So far we have done very
The play is to be per-

.

prophets of Israel and of an-
cient visionaries."
Then he continued, "In
the fullness of her broad in-
tellect she had the ability to
re-evaluate all the worldy
treasures and to draw upon
new wells of the spirit."
On the centennial of her
birth, we may draw upon
the spirit of her creativity to
give a revitalized sense of
direction to that Zionist
ideal which burned in her
soul and dominated her life,
both in"-America and in
Eretz 'Yisrael.
Over the years, Jesse
Sampter's name has per-
haps tended to be over-
shadowed by other great
figures in American
Zionism. Yet she is a sym-
bol, not only of the Zionist
idea, but also of its personal
realization, of aliya, of indi-
vidual hardship, effort and
satisfaction. Surely, this is
what Zionism is about.

Controversial Israeli Play
to Open Festival in Scotland

formed on the opening night
of the Festival in Scotland
on Aug. 22, in Hebrew, with
a simultaneous English
translation available to the
audience. A Haifa Theater
spokesman said the invita-
tion was extended by festi-
val manager John Drum-
mond, who has been visiting
Israel.
The invitation to open the
Festival is regarded as a
great honor, especially
since it is the first time an
Israeli play is being pre-
sented as an official part of
the Festival, though Israeli
works have been presented
unofficially in Edinburgh
during the Festival period.

War should never be
entered upon until every
agency of peace has failed.
—William McKinley