After the public responded in outrage to the UN’s decision to block part of an exhibit on Israel, the notoriously anti-Semitic body relented and allowed the exhibit to be displayed in full.
Public outcry following the United Nations’ (UN) censorship of an Israeli exhibit on the centrality of Jerusalem, Israel’s capital city, to Zionism and Israel, has forced the UN to come to its senses and the exhibit is on display in full.
Following a demand by Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, the exhibition commissioned by the Israeli Mission and the non-profit StandWithUs will be displayed at UN headquarters.
The UN initially censored key elements of the exhibit portraying Zionism,Jerusalem and Arab Israelis.
“The decision to allow the panel on Zionism is a clear win for Israeli diplomacy and a victory for the truth about Israel,” Danon stated.
The exhibition opened on Monday at UN headquarters in New York without the panels banned by the UN. Instead, a protest exhibit was displayed featuring the banned panel about Zionism and the word “censored” written on it. Later in the day, the UN reversed its decision and allowed the Zionism panel to be exhibited.
Ambassador Danny Danon. (Jens Schott Knudsen/Flickr)
“This is a step in the right direction, but the UN must reverse its earlier decision entirely and allow the exhibit to be displayed without censoring the truth about Israel and Jerusalem – the eternal capital of the Jewish people,” Danon added.
“Forty years ago the UN General Assembly approved a resolution equating Zionism with racism. The resolution was reversed sixteen years later. With this decision, the UN is de-facto enacting this old resolution, is defining Zionism and Jerusalem as “unacceptable,” and is disqualifying key elements of the heritage of the Jewish people,” Israel’s delegation to the UN said in a statement.
“The UN’s reversal of its decision is an important victory that sends a clear message about the importance of standing strong for what you believe in,” Shahar Azani, StandWithUs’s Executive Director of the Northeast region of the United States, said. He thanked Danon and Israel’s Mission to the UN for “their leadership,” and vowed that StandWithUs will “continue to stand by the people and the State of Israel against lies and any attempt to censorship the truth about the vibrant and diverse democracy that is the modern State of Israel.”
