Bernard Lewis: The New Anti-Semitism III--The UN

Lastly, Lewis notes some of the disparities in the way the UN has handled the Middle East--going back to 1948.

1. Following the 1948 War of Independence, it was accepted without argument that Arabs could remain under Israeli rule, but no Jews could remain in those areas that ended up under Arab control.

2. Among Jews who could not stay in Arab controlled areas there were "not just settlers, but old, established groups, notably the ancient Jewish community in East Jerusalem, which was totally evicted and its monuments desecrated or destroyed." There was no outrcy from either the UN nor international public opinion. The Arab world took note.

3. The UN response to Arab refugees was to make very elaborate arrangements with extensive financing--as opposed to the UN response to Jews of equal number who either fled or were driven out from Arab lands, and as opposed to how other refugees from other countries were treated ("Hindus who fled or were driven from Pakistan into India, Muslims who fled or were driven from India into Pakistan...the millions of refugees in Central and Eastern Europe—Poles fleeing from the Eastern Polish areas annexed to the Soviet Union and Germans fleeing from the East German areas annexed to Poland").

4. Following the war in 1948, Arab countries went beyond just not recognizing Israel. They also refused to allow Israelis of any religion into their countries. Israeli Christians and Arabs were not allowed into East Jerusalem, though Israeli Christians could enter on Christmas Day for a few hours. At the time, Israeli Muslims were not allowed to go on their obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.

5. Virtually all Arab countries refused to give visas to Jews of any nationality--"Again, not a word of protest from anywhere. One can imagine the outrage if Israel had announced that it would not give visas to Muslims, still more if the United States were to do so. As directed against Jews, this ban was seen as perfectly natural and normal."

6. The Jordanian nationality law of February 4, 1954 accepts Palestinian natives and residents as citizens--with no objection by international public opinion.

7. A report was presented to UNESCO on April 4, 1969 on the anti-Semitic material found after the Six Day War in textbooks funded by UNESCO. The report was not published.

Consistently, these actions by the Arab countries were accepted as natural and normal, with no offical protest--a point that the Arab world noted.

Lewis concludes that:

For those who needed it, all this provided an up-to-date, intellectually and socially acceptable rationale for what ought to be called anti-Semitism but, since that word isn't acceptable, might be called Jew-baiting, Jew-hating, or generally being unpleasant to Jews.

See also:
o Bernard Lewis: The New Anti-Semitism I--The Jewish Lobby
o Bernard Lewis: The New Anti-Semitism II--Arab Humor

Technorati Tag: Israel and UN and Palestinians and UNESCO and Jordan and Arabs and Anti-Semitism.