By Anne Bayefsky ——Bio and Archives--July 8, 2016
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“I almost became part of the UN’s [2001] Durban I conference. Kofi Annan was Secretary-General and he created a group that the UN called a ‘group of eminent persons’ that was supposed to give its moral auspices to Durban I. Kofi Annan called me and how could I say no? Then I got the program. I called up Kofi and said I must resign. He had already announced the composition of the group and my name was on it. I went to see him in person and told him I cannot participate because I realize now from the program that Durban is supposed to be a conference against antisemitism, but is becoming a conference of antisemitism. ‘Oh no,’ he said, ’you come and speak.’ I said ‘I am not going’ and I resigned in protest.He didn’t just resign. Almost eight years later, in 2009, the UN sponsored “Durban II” in Geneva. This conference was billed as a global reaffirmation of the 2001 Durban Declaration, which libelously declared that Jewish self-determination creates Palestinian victims of Israeli racism. The lead-off speaker – and the only head of state to attend – was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And then there was Eli Wiesel, speaking this time in the room next door at an unofficial non-U.N., Touro-sponsored, event.
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“Antisemitism is still a subject that we must deal with. To me, it is a source of astonishment. From the viewpoint of logic, if Auschwitz didn’t cure the world of antisemitism, what could and what will? …But then antisemitism never actually disappeared. "Antisemites accuse us of being too rich or too poor, too universalist or too nationalistic, too intelligent or too stupid, too learned or too ignorant. Whatever we are, we are excessively what we are. “Antisemites denounce our feeling of superiority. But then I learned never to allow the enemy to define my Jewishness. I will not allow them to touch the core of my identity, which is simply I am a son of the Jewish people.“So why then do our enemies go on? Because they are convinced that if they go on and on, somehow it will not only change the world, it will change us in our own eyes.” Wiesel’s response was, therefore, to remind us of the tale of the courageous sage committed to equal human dignity who shouted in the streets "remember, remember who we are, remember the dangers we face, and remember our duty" – not because we will change others, but so that others cannot change us. This was Wiesel’s definition of the Jew and his answer to antisemitism. Surely it is also a lesson for humankind. September 2016 marks the 15th anniversary of Durban. The U.N. has already announced this is a cause for celebration. Elie Wiesel’s shout will be deeply missed. His voice, however, continues to reverberate, stirring us all from silence.
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Anne Bayefsky is director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust. Follow her @AnneBayefsky.