B’nai B’rith International condemns the June 8 racist statement against Israel by a Syrian representative, First Secretary Rania Al Rifaiy, and calls on the president of the United Nations Human Rights Council to speak out against such anti-Semitic language.“Unfortunately, we hear rhetoric like this repeatedly with few-to-no consequences that follow,” B’nai B’rith International President Dennis W. Glick said. “Words of this kind inflict hate and incite violence, and that simply cannot be tolerated.”
Al Rifaiy’s stated the following: “Israel…is a state that is built on hatred…Let me quote a song that a group of children on a school bus in Israel sing merrily as they got to school and I quote ‘With my teeth I will rip your flesh. With my mouth I will suck your blood.’”
In a letter addressed to U.N. Human Rights Council President Alex Van Meeuwen, Glick and B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin wrote: “Hate-speech must be confronted at the council, especially when the perpetrator is a Member State of the United Nations, sworn to uphold the U.N. Charter.”
“It is shocking that thoughts such as these can exist in any human being, especially someone speaking within the United Nations,” Mariaschin said. “What is even more distressing and disappointing is that the president of the council stayed silent about it.”
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