US: Ireland's stance on anti-Semitism was attacked in the Wall Street Journal yesterday in an article accusing the Republic of "slamming the door in the face of a (UN) resolution to protect Jewish victims".
The opinion-page article by Prof Anne Bayefsky, a Toronto-based member of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, criticised Ireland's decision last week to withdraw its resolution at the General Assembly condemning anti-Semitism.
The resolution, co-sponsored by the EU, failed after Arab and Muslim states insisted that it include amendments condemning intolerance against other religions, which the Irish UN mission considered would have defeated the purpose of obtaining the first UN resolution to date specifically condemning anti-Semitism.
Ms Bayefsky wrote that the UN had once again proved itself incapable of rising to the moral challenges of its founding charter.
"At this year's General Assembly, Ireland assumed the role of gatekeeper, slamming the door in the face of a resolution to protect Jewish victims," she stated.
"Ireland has shepherded resolutions on religious intolerance through UN bodies for nearly 20 years without introducing anti-Semitism. In mid-November current events prompted demands in the Irish Parliament for an explanation of this omission from Foreign Minister Brian Cowen.
"The shabby excuse offered at that time was to sacrifice Jewish rights on the UN's alter of 'consensus and a wide level of co-sponsorship'.
"Irish unwillingness or inability to stand up for principle at a time when it is assuming the presidency of the European Union, does little to enhance the credibility of either the UN or the EU as honest brokers in the Middle East peace process."
The author went on to accuse Ireland of a breach of a deal between Mr Cowen and Israeli Foreign Minister Mr Silvan Shalom in which she claimed Israel agreed to drop efforts to include "anti-Semitism" in the religious intolerance resolution in exchange for a promise from Ireland to introduce a new resolution specifically on anti-Semitism.
"But after the UN adopted the resolution on religious intolerance minus any reference to anti-Semitism, Ireland refused to carry out its side of the bargain."
As reported in The Irish Times on Friday, Ireland withdrew the anti-Semitic resolution after two weeks of intensive negotiations when it became clear an agreed outcome was not attainable before the assembly closed.
A spokesman at the mission said a reference to anti-Semitism was not included in the Irish-sponsored religious intolerance resolution passed in November, as it would have sparked a series of amendments regarding other religions and would have become unmanageable.
Prof Bayefsky also accuses UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan of paying only lip-service to the problem of anti-Semitism.
The Irish mission declined to comment yesterday on the Wall Street Journal article.
Israel's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Arye Mekel, had welcomed the Irish anti-Semitism resolution as a "very positive development", and said last week he was saddened by its withdrawal.
The resolution condemned "all manifestations of anti-Semitism wherever they occur" and attacks on "synagogues and other religious places, sites and shrines," as well as all "intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence" based on ethnic or religious belief.