Cruel and Repressive Racist Regime

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s description of Israel.

In an inflammatory speech at the recent United Nations World Conference on Racism, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad argued:

Following World War II, [the victorious powers] resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless on the pretext of Jewish suffering. And they sent migrants from Europe, the United States and from other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine. … In compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the mostcruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine.

Reporting on the conference for The Guardian, Julian Borger observed:

Some countries, led by the US and Israel, had already declared a boycott, others, including Britain, took their seats, but were braced, with their “shoes on,” to walk out if Ahmadinejad’s oratory was to prove offensive.

When he did speak, he was even more vitriolic than they had feared.

The Times described reaction to Ahmadinejad’s speech as “a chorus of condemnation.” The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moonstated:

We must all turn away from such a message in both form and substance. We must join hands and work together to achieve a constructive, substantive agenda to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

The United States deputy ambassador to the U.N., Alejandro Wolff said:

I can’t think of any other word than shameful. … It does a grave injustice to the Iranian nation and the Iranian people, and we call on the Iranian leadership to show much more measured, moderate, honest and constructive rhetoric when dealing with issues in the region.

However, The Times noted that “Not everyone at the conference was critical of the speech, which also wandered through topics like the economic collapse and Iraq and Afghanistan.” As the Pakistani ambassador Zamir Akram told the A.P.:

If we actually believe in freedom of expression, then he has the right to say what he wants to say. … There were things in there that a lot of people in the Muslim world would be in agreement with, for example the situation in Palestine, in Iraq and in Afghanistan, even if they don’t agree with the way he said it.