Expecting Israel would once again earn international condemnation for its racist policies most of its supporters did not turn up at Geneva this Sunday to attend the UN anti-racism conference. The last anti-racism conference at Durban in 2001 had listed Israel at the top of the racist regimes, and it was quite likely that given its aggression against Gaza last winter it would earn that position at the follow-up conference at Geneva.
The hardest attack was expected, correctly, from Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. And it did come from him. His argument was that 'in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe they (winners of World War Two) helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive regime in Palestine'.
This paragon of racism, he said, was founded on the pretext of Jewish sufferings during the last Great War. So, it is time the ideal of Zionism is broken, he added. Obviously his remarks sparked protest and some staged a walkout. But majority of the audience stayed to hear him.
Creation of Israel on the land confiscated from its owners, Palestinians, is a historical fact, and history cannot be rewritten. Over the years Israel has expanded itself through force and repression; that is also a historical fact. And this expansion continues while the world looks on helplessly because the powers that can really stop it are on the side of the Zionist expansionists.
Last winter the world was a mute, helpless witness to the most blatant aggression the Israeli forces launched against the people of Gaza Strip. When President Ahmedinejad talks of Zionism-sponsored racism he reflects thinking of majority of countries.
Until and unless there is a fair and just solution to the problem of Palestine the Zionist entity would keep earning world denunciation and reproach. Instead of boycotting the UN conference the pro-Israeli countries should have been present to hear the Iranian leader. The problem of racism is too enormous to be swept under the carpet as tomorrow, it may be someone else saying what Ahmedinejad of Iran has said.