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THE TWO GREAT EVILS: HATRED AND
IGNORANCE - CHAIM HERZOG 1975
Address to the U.N. General Assembly
It follows the full text transcript of
Chaim Herzog's Address to the U.N. General
Assembly, delivered at New York, NY - November 10, 1975.
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It is symbolic
that this debate, |
which may well
prove to be a turning point in the fortunes of
the United Nations and a decisive factor as to
the possible continued existence of this
Organization, should take place on 10 November.
This night, 37 years ago, has gone down in
history as the Kristallnacht, or the
Night of the Crystals. This was the night of
10 November 1938 when Hitler's nazi
stormtroopers launched a coordinated attack on
the Jewish community in Germany, burnt the
synagogues in all the cities and made bonfires
in the streets, of the Holy Books and the
Scrolls of the Holy Laws and the Bible. It was
the night when Jewish homes were attacked and
heads of families were taken away, many of them
never to return. It was the night when the
windows of all Jewish businesses and stores were
smashed, covering the streets in the cities of
Germany with a film of broken glass which
dissolved into millions of crystals, giving that
night the name of Kristallnacht, the
Night of the Crystals. It was the night
which led eventually to the crematoria and the
gas chambers, to Auschwitz, Birkenau, Dachau,
Buchenwald, Theresienstadt, and others. It was
the night which led to the most terrifying
holocaust in the history of man.
It is indeed fitting, that this draft, conceived
in the desire to deflect the Middle East from
its moves towards peace, and born of a deep,
pervading feeling of anti-Semitism, should come
up for debate on this day which recalls one of
the tragic days in one of the darkest periods of
history. It is indeed fitting that the United
Nations, which began its life as an anti-Nazi
Alliance, should, 30 years later, find itself on
its way to becoming the world centre of
anti-Semitism. Hitler would have felt at home on
a number of occasions during the past year,
listening to the proceedings in this form and,
above all, to the proceedings during the debate
on Zionism.
It is a sobering reflection indeed to consider
to what this body has been dragged down, if we
are obliged today to contemplate an attack on
Zionism. For this attack constitutes not only an
anti-Semitic attack of the foulest type, but
also an attack in this world body on Judaism,
one of the oldest-established religions in the
world, a religion which has given the world the
human values of the Bible, a religion, from
which two other great religions, Christianity
and Islam, sprang - a great and established
religion that has given to the world the Bible
with its Ten Commandments; the great prophets of
old, Moses, Isaiah, Amos; the great thinkers of
history, Maimonides, Spinoza, Marx, Einstein;
many of the masters of the arts; and as high a
percentage of Nobel Prize winners in the world,
in the sciences, the arts and the humanities, as
has been achieved by any other people on earth.
One can but ponder and wonder at the prospect of
countries, which consider themselves to be part
of the civilized world, joining in this first
organized attack on an established religion
since the Middle Ages. Yes, to these depths are
we being dragged by those who propose this draft
resolution to the Middle Ages.
The draft resolution before the Third Committee
was originally a resolution condemning racism
and colonialism, a subject on which consensus
could have been achieved, a consensus which is
of great importance to all of us and to our
African colleagues in particular. However,
instead of this being permitted to happen, a
group of countries, drunk with the feeling of
power inherent in the automatic majority, and
without regard to the importance of achieving a
consensus on this issue, railroaded the
Committee in a contemptuous manner by the use of
the automatic majority, into bracketing Zionism
with the subject under discussion. Indeed, it is
difficult to speak of this base move with any
measure of restraint.
I do not come to this rostrum to defend the
moral and historical values of the Jewish
people. They do not need to be defended. They
speak for themselves. They have given to mankind
much of what is great and eternal. They -have
done for the spirit of man more than can readily
be appreciated in a forum such as this one.
I come here to denounce the two great evils
which menace society in general and a society of
nations in particular. These two evils are
hatred and ignorance. These two evils are the
motivating force behind the proponents of this
draft resolution and their supporters. These two
evils characterize those who would drag this
world organization, the idea of which was first
conceived by the prophets of Israel, to the
depths to which it has been dragged today.
The key to understanding Zionism lies in its
name. In the Bible, the westernmost of the two
hills of ancient Jerusalem was called Zion. The
period was the tenth century B.C. In fact, the
name "Zion" appears 152 times in the Old
Testament referring to Jerusalem. The name is
overwhelmingly a poetic and prophetic
designation. The religious and emotional
qualities of the name arise from the importance
of Jerusalem as the Royal City and the City of
the Temple. "Mount Zion" is the place where God
dwells according to the Bible. Jerusalem or
Zion, is a place where the Lord is King
according to Isaiah, and where he has installed
his King David, as quoted in the Psalms.
King David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel
almost 3,000 years ago, and Jerusalem has
remained the capital ever since. During the
centuries the term "Zion" grew and expanded to
mean the whole of Israel. The Israelites in
exile could not forget Zion.
The Hebrew psalmist sat by the waters of Babylon
and swore "If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my
right hand forget her cunning". This oath has
been repeated for thousands of years by Jews
throughout the world. It is an oath which was
made over 700 years before the advent of
Christianity, and over 1,200 years before the
advent of Islam.
In view of all these connotations, Zion came to
mean the Jewish homeland, symbolic of Judaism,
of Jewish national aspirations.
Every Jew, while praying to his God, wherever he
is in the world, faces towards Jerusalem. These
prayers have expressed for over 2,000 years of
exile the yearning of the Jewish people to
return to its ancient homeland, Israel. In fact,
a continuous Jewish presence, in larger or
smaller numbers, has been maintained in the
country over the centuries.
Zionism is the name of the national movement of
the Jewish people and is the modern expression
of the ancient Jewish heritage. The Zionist
ideal, as set out in the Bible, has been, and
is, an integral part of the Jewish religion.
Zionism is to the Jewish people what the
liberation movement of Africa and Asia have been
to their peoples. Zionism is one of the most
stirring and constructive national movements in
human history. Historically, it is based on a
unique and unbroken connection, extending some
4,000 years, between the People of the Book and
the Land of the Bible.
In modern times, in the late 19th century,
spurred by the twin forces of anti-Semitic
persecution and nationalism, the Jewish people
organized the Zionist movement in order to
transform its dream into reality. Zionism, as a
political movement, was the revolt of an
oppressed nation against the depredations and
wicked discrimination and oppression of the
countries in which anti-Semitism flourished. It
is indeed no coincidence at all, and not
surprising, that the sponsors and supporters of
this draft resolution include countries which
are guilty of the horrible crime of
anti-Semitism and discrimination to this very
day.
Support for the aim of Zionism was written into
the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, and
was again endorsed by the United Nations in
1947, when the General Assembly voted by an
overwhelming majority for the restoration of
Jewish independence in our ancient land.
The re-establishment of Jewish independence in
Israel, after centuries of struggle to overcome
foreign conquest and exile, is a vindication of
the fundamental concepts of the equality of
nations and of self-determination. To question
the Jewish people's right to national existence
and freedom, is not only to deny to the Jewish
people the right accorded to every other people
on this globe but is also to deny the central
precepts of the United Nations.
For Zionism is nothing more - and nothing less -
than the Jewish people's sense of origin and
destination in the land, linked eternally with
its name. It is also the instrument whereby the
Jewish nation seeks an authentic fulfillment of
itself. And the drama is enacted in the region
in which the Arab nation has realized its
sovereignty in 20 States, comprising a hundred
million people in four and a half million square
miles, with vast resources. The issue therefore
is not whether the world will come to terms with
Arab nationalism. The question is, at what point
Arab nationalism, with its prodigious glut of
advantage, wealth and opportunity, will come to
terms with the modest but equal rights of
another Middle Eastern nation to pursue its life
in security and peace.
The vicious diatribes on Zionism voiced here by
Arab representatives, may give this Assembly the
wrong impression, that while the rest of the
world supported the Jewish national liberation
movement, the Arab world was always hostile to
Zionism. That is not the case. Arab leaders,
cognizant of the rights of the Jewish people,
fully endorsed the virtues of Zionism. Sheriff
Hussein, the leader of the Arab world during the
First World War, welcomed the return of the Jews
to Palestine. His son, Emir Feisal, who
represented the Arab world in the Paris Peace
Conference had this to say about Zionism on 3
March 1919:
"We Arabs,
especially the educated among us, look with
deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement...
We will wish the Jews a hearty welcome
home... We are working together for a
reformed and revised Near East, and our two
movements complement one another. The
movement is national and not imperialistic.
There is room in Syria for us both. Indeed,
I think that neither can be a success
without the other."
It is perhaps pertinent at this point to recall,
that in 1947, when the question of Palestine was
being debated in the United Nations, the Soviet
Union strongly supported the Jewish independence
struggle. It is particularly relevant to recall
some of Mr. Andrei Gromyko's remarks on 14 May
1947, one year before our independence:
"As we know,
the aspirations of a considerable part of
the Jewish people are linked with the
problem of Palestine and of its future
administration. This fact scarcely required
proof.. During the last war, the Jewish
people underwent exceptional sorrow and
suffering. Without any exaggeration, this
sorrow and suffering are indescribable. It
is difficult to express them in dry
statistics on the Jewish victims of the
fascist aggressors. The Jews in the
territories where the Hitlerites held sway,
were subjected to almost complete physical
annihilation. The total number of Jews who
perished at the hands of the Nazi
executioners is estimated at approximately
six million ...".
"The United Nations cannot and must not
regard this situation with indifference,
since this would be incompatible with the
high principles proclaimed in its Charter,
which provides for the defense of human
rights, irrespective of race, religion or
sex..."
The fact that no Western European State has been
able to ensure the defense of the elementary
rights of the Jewish people and to safeguard it
against the violence of the fascist
executioners, explains the aspirations of the
Jews to establish their own State. It would be
unjust not to take this into consideration and
to deny the right of the Jewish people to
realize this aspiration. Those were the words of
Mr. Andrei Gromyko at the General Assembly
session on 14 May 1947.
How sad it is, to see here a group of nations,
many of whom have but recently freed themselves
from colonial rule, deriding one of the most
noble liberation movements of this century, a
movement which not only gave an example of
encouragement and determination to the people
struggling for independence, but also actively
aided many of them during the period of
preparation for their independence or
immediately thereafter.
Here you have a movement, which is the
embodiment of a unique pioneering spirit, of the
dignity of labor, and of enduring human values,
a movement which has presented to the world an
example of social equality and open democracy,
being associated in this resolution with
abhorrent political concepts.
We, in Israel, have endeavored to create a
society which strives to implement the highest
ideals of society - political, social and
cultural - for all the inhabitants of Israel,
irrespective of religious belief, race or sex.
Show me another pluralistic society in this
world in which, despite all the difficult
problems among which we live, Jew and Arab live
together with such a degree of harmony, in which
the dignity and rights of man are observed
before the law, in which no death sentence is
applied, in which freedom of speech, of
movement, of thought, of expression are
guaranteed, in which even movements, which are
opposed to our national aims, are represented in
our Parliament.
The Arab delegates talk of racism. It lies not
in their mouths. What has happened to the
800,000 Jews who lived for over 2,000 years in
the Arab lands, who formed some of the most
ancient communities long before the advent of
Islam? Where are those communities? What
happened to the people, what happened to their
property?
The Jews were once one of the important
communities in the countries of the Middle East,
the leaders of thought, of commerce, of medical
science. Where are they in Arab society today?
You dare talk of racism when I can point with
pride to the Arab Ministers who have served in
my Government; to the Arab deputy speaker of my
Parliament; to Arab officers and men serving of
their own volition in our defense, border and
police forces, frequently commanding Jewish
troops; to the hundreds of thousands of Arabs
from all over the Middle East crowding the
cities of Israel every year; to the thousands of
Arabs from all over the Middle East coming for
medical treatment to Israel; to the peaceful
coexistence which has developed; to the fact
that Arabic is an official language in Israel on
a par with Hebrew; to the fact that it is as
natural for an Arab to serve in public office in
Israel as it is incongruous to think of a Jew
serving in any public office in any Arab
country, indeed being admitted to many of them.
Is that racism? It is not. That is Zionism.
It is our attempt to build a society, imperfect
though it may be - and what society is perfect?
- in which the visions of the prophets of Israel
will be realized. I know that we have problems.
I know that many disagree with our Government's
policies. Many in Israel, too, disagree from
time to time with the Government's policies, and
are free to do so, because Zionism has created
the first and only real democratic State in a
part of the world that never really knew
democracy and freedom of speech.
This malicious resolution, designed to divert us
from its true purpose, is part of a dangerous
anti-Semitic idiom which is being insinuated
into every public debate by those who have sworn
to block the current move towards accommodation
and ultimately towards peace in the Middle East.
This, together with similar moves, is designed
to sabotage the efforts of the Geneva Conference
for peace in the Middle East.
We are seeing here today but another
manifestation of the bitter anti-Semitic,
anti-Jewish hatred which animates Arab society.
Who would have believed that in the year of 1975
the malicious falsehoods of the Elders of Zion
would be distributed officially by Arab
Governments? Who would have believed that we
would today contemplate an Arab society which
teaches the vilest anti-Jewish hate in the
kindergartens? Who would have believed that an
Arab Head of State would feel obliged to indulge
publicly in anti-Semitism of the cheapest nature
when visiting a friendly nation? We are being
attacked by a society which is motivated by the
most extreme form of racism known in the world
today. This is the racism which was expressed so
succinctly in the words of the leader of the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser
Arafat, in his opening address at a symposium in
Tripoli, Libya, and I quote:
"There will be
no presence in the region except for the
Arab presence".
In other words, in
the Middle East, from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Persian Gulf, only one presence is allowed, and
that is the Arab presence. No other people,
regardless of how deep are its roots in the
region, is to be permitted to enjoy its right of
self-determination.
Look at the tragic fate of the Kurds of Iraq.
Look at what happened to the black population in
southern Sudan. Look at the dire peril in which
an entire community of Christians finds itself
in Lebanon. Look at the avowed policy of the
PLO, which calls, in its Palestine Covenant, for
the destruction of the State of Israel, which
denies any form of compromise on the Palestine
issue, and which, in the words of its
representative only the other day in this
building, considers Tel Aviv to be occupied
territory. Look at all this and you see before
you the root cause of the pernicious resolution
brought before this Assembly. You see the twin
evils of this world at work: the blind hatred of
the Arab proponents of this resolution, and the
abysmal ignorance and wickedness of those who
support them.
The issue before this Assembly is not Israel and
is not Zionism. The issue is the fate of this
Organization. Conceived in the spirit of the
prophets of Israel, born out of an anti-Nazi
alliance after the tragedy of the Second World
War, it has degenerated into a forum which was
this last week described by one of the leading
writers in a foremost organ of social and
liberal thought in the West as, and I quote:
"rapidly
becoming one of the most corrupt and
corrupting creations in the whole history of
human institutions... almost without
exception those in the majority come from
States notable for racist oppression of
every conceivable hue..."
"Israel is a social democracy,...
... its people and Government have a
profound respect for human life, so
passionate indeed that, despite every
conceivable provocation, they have refused
for a quarter of a century to execute a
single captured terrorist. They also have an
ancient but vigorous culture, and a
flourishing technology. The combination of
national qualities they have assembled in
their brief existence as a State is a
perpetual and embittering reproach to most
of the new countries whose representatives
swagger about the United Nations building.
So Israel is envied and hated, and efforts
are made to destroy her. The extermination
of the Israelis has long been the prime
objective of the Terrorist international;
they calculate that if they can break
Israel, then all the rest of civilization is
vulnerable to their assaults".
And then he goes on to conclude:
"The
melancholy truth, I fear, is that the
candles of civilization are burning low. The
world is increasingly governed not so much
by capitalism, or communism, or social
democracy, or even tribal barbarism, as by a
false lexicon of political cliches,
accumulated over half a century and now
assuming a kind of degenerate sacerdotal
authority... We all know what they are..."
Over the centuries it has fallen to the lot of
my people to be the testing agent of human
decency, the touchstone of civilization, the
crucible in which enduring human values are to
be tested. A nation's level of humanity could
invariably be judged by its behavior towards its
Jewish population. It always began with the Jews
but never ended with them.
The anti-Jewish pogroms in Czarist Russia were
but the tip of the iceberg which revealed the
inherent rottenness of the regime which was soon
to disappear in the storm of revolution. The
anti-Semitic excesses of the Nazis merely
foreshadowed the catastrophe which was to befall
mankind in Europe.
This wicked resolution must sound the alarm for
all decent people in the world. The Jewish
people, as a testing agent, has unfortunately
never erred. The implications inherent in this
shameful move are terrifying indeed.
On this issue, the world as represented in this
hall has divided itself into good and bad,
decent and evil, human and debased. We, the
Jewish people, will recall in history our
gratitude to those nations, who stood up and
were counted, and who refused to support this
wicked proposition. I know that this episode
will have strengthened the forces of freedom and
decency in this world and will have fortified
them in their resolve to strengthen the ideals
they so value. I know that this episode will
have strengthened Zionism as it has weakened the
United Nations.
As I stand on this rostrum, the long and proud
history of my people unravels itself before my
inward eye, I see the oppressors of our people
over the ages as they pass one after another in
evil procession into oblivion. I stand here
before you as the representative of a strong and
flourishing people which has survived them all
and which will survive this shameful exhibition
and the proponents of this resolution. I stand
here as the representative of a people one of
whose prophets gave to this world the sublime
prophecy which animated the founders of this
world Organization and which graces the entrance
to this building:
"...nation
shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more."
(Isaiah ii, 4)
Three verses before that, the Prophet Isaiah
proclaimed,
"And it shall
come to pass in the last days... for out of
Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of
the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isaiah, ii, 2 and
3)
As I stand on this rostrum, the great moments of
Jewish history come to mind as I face you, once
again outnumbered and the would-be victim of
hate, ignorance and evil. I look back on those
great moments. I recall the greatness of a
nation which I have the honor to represent in
this forum. I am mindful at this moment of the
Jewish people throughout the world wherever they
may be, be it in freedom or in slavery, whose
prayers and thoughts are with me at this moment.
I stand here not as a, supplicant. Vote as your
moral conscience dictates to you. For the issue
is not Israel or Zionism. The issue is the
continued existence of the Organization which
has been dragged to its lowest point of
discredit by a coalition of despotisms and
racists.
The vote of each delegation will record in
history its country's stand on anti-Semitic
racism and anti-Judaism. You yourselves bear the
responsibility for your stand before history,
for as such will you be viewed in history. But
we, the Jewish people, will not forget.
For us, the Jewish people, this is but a passing
episode in a rich and an event-filled history.
We put our trust in our Providence, in our faith
and beliefs, in our time-hallowed tradition, in
our striving for social advance and human
values, and in our people wherever they may be.
For us, the Jewish people, this resolution,
based on hatred, falsehood and arrogance, is
devoid of any moral or legal value. For us, the
Jewish people, this is no more than a piece of
paper, and we shall treat it as such.
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