Transcript [00:00] My dear friend, [00:02] Secretary General of the United Nations, [00:07] I would like to begin [00:10] with reading from a novel and I shall [00:14] conclude reading from another novel. [00:18] The first one is called the plague [00:20] written by Albert Camu. [00:23] It's a story about a city which suffered [00:27] from the plague. [00:29] Day after day, men, women, and children [00:34] were taken by death. [00:36] There was one man, a physician named Dr. [00:39] Ru. He was the chronicler of the plague. [00:41] And at the end of the story, literally [00:44] the last page of the book. [00:48] All of a sudden, Ri the hero remembered [00:52] and I caught him. [00:55] He saw I saw the joy, [00:58] the happiness, the exuberance, the [01:01] celebration. [01:03] But I know that such joy is always [01:05] imperiled. [01:08] He knew. Rio knew that those jubilant [01:12] crowds did not know but could have [01:15] learned from books that the plague virus [01:19] never dies or disappears [01:22] for good. [01:24] That it can lie dormant for years and [01:26] years in furniture and linen chests. [01:30] That it bites its time in bedrooms, [01:33] cellars, trunks, and bookshelves. [01:36] And that perhaps the day would come when [01:39] for the for the bane and the [01:41] enlightening of men, it would rouse up [01:45] its rats again and send them forth to [01:49] die in a happy city. [01:53] That virus, we call it anti-semitism. [01:58] We thought he disappeared, but he [02:00] didn't. [02:02] And so in this solemn setting, [02:06] we are here today [02:09] to plead to you, Mr. Secretary General, [02:13] on behalf of my people, an ancient [02:17] people who in some quarters continues to [02:20] be vilified, threatened, offended, [02:25] and physically marked for humiliation, [02:28] if not worse. [02:30] Call it anti-semitism, a term coined at [02:33] the end of the 19th century, or simply [02:36] Jew hatred. It is the oldest collective [02:40] bigotry in recorded history. [02:44] In fact, one may say that of all the [02:47] group hatreds in antiquity, [02:51] anti-semitism alone survived antiquity. [02:56] It is no longer political, social or [02:59] religious or ethnic. It is existential. [03:05] It is metaphysical. [03:08] Anti-semitism, [03:10] as you have mentioned, Mr. Secretary [03:12] General, is so generous. Other people, [03:17] other traditions, [03:19] other religious communities, other [03:21] cultures [03:23] have been persecuted for a variety of [03:25] reasons, but anti-semitism combines them [03:29] all. [03:32] The anti-semite doesn't know me, [03:35] but he hates me. [03:38] Actually, he hated me even before I was [03:41] born. [03:43] The anti-Semite hates the dead and not [03:46] only the living. [03:48] Otherwise, why are [03:51] so many cemeteries profanated, causing a [03:54] sacrilege to all those who have any [03:57] sense, any feeling for religious life [04:02] and religious faith and religious hope. [04:07] There isn't a week, sometimes a day, [04:11] without an anti-semitic incident in [04:14] Europe. [04:16] A young Israeli [04:18] visiting Berlin was assaulted in the [04:22] street in broad daylight. Yesterday, [04:26] last week, a young Jewish student was [04:30] stabbed in Paris in broad daylight. [04:34] A number of European Jews told me, of [04:37] course, [04:39] in confidence, that they live in fear. [04:43] Who would have thought that Jews would [04:46] live in fear 60 years after the worst [04:50] tragedy of human history. [04:55] Incitement to hate and violence [04:58] continues to fill the pages and occupy [05:01] the TV screens in many too many Muslim [05:06] countries [05:08] under the pretext of blaming Israel's [05:10] policies which they outrageously [05:14] exaggerate and exerbate and demonize [05:18] some intellectual thinkers. [05:22] encourage hatred [05:25] towards the entire Jewish people. [05:29] And why not say it? Anti-semitism has [05:33] even managed to penetrate the UN [05:36] atmosphere. [05:38] Had it not been for your courageous [05:41] intervention, Mr. Secretary General, the [05:44] infamous resolution [05:47] comparing Zionism to racism, I think, [05:51] would still be in effect. You behind the [05:55] scenes, as I know, did everything [05:58] possible and you succeeded. [06:02] But Durban [06:05] there your efforts were less successful [06:09] and instead of being a conference [06:11] against hatred it became a conference of [06:15] hatred [06:17] for Israel the state and Israel the [06:20] people [06:23] as you said it Mr. Secretary General. [06:25] The United Nations was created not only [06:27] to put an end to aggression and war, [06:31] but also to protect values, ideals of [06:36] humanity [06:38] and to shield innocent victims of [06:40] fascism and nazism. [06:43] But then you know [06:46] that I and some of us here belong to a [06:48] people that have been the principal [06:51] targets of Nazism and fascism. [06:55] And so we turn to the United Nations [06:57] today together with you, Mr. Secretary [07:01] General and we ask the leadership of the [07:05] world to fulfill its mission and use its [07:10] political and moral authority to outlaw [07:14] the plague which anti-semitism is. [07:20] You know I have devoted like you [07:25] most of my adult life to combat many [07:28] evils of society. [07:31] Apparite, [07:34] willful persecution of innocence, [07:38] intolerance, [07:40] racism, fanaticism, [07:42] and indifference to other people's [07:44] sufferings and other people's fears. I [07:47] have devoted my life to that. [07:51] But I never thought [07:53] that I will have to fight anti-semitism. [07:58] And 60 years [08:01] after the war, [08:03] 60 years [08:05] after the inauguration of the United [08:07] Nations, [08:10] here we are. [08:12] Naively, I was convinced that [08:14] anti-semitism died in Awitz. [08:18] And now I realize my mistake. It didn't. [08:22] Only the Jews perished there. [08:25] Anti-semitism [08:27] is alive [08:29] and well [08:31] in too many lands. [08:34] But then it has always been. [08:38] In the 30s of the last century, many [08:41] intellectuals, writers, poets, painters [08:45] were anti-semites and weren't even [08:47] embarrassed by it. [08:49] I could give you the names [08:51] of writers, famous writers who in France [08:55] and in Germany, they belong to [08:57] anti-semitic circles and weren't [09:00] embarrassed. They said only words. [09:03] But now we know what words can do. [09:07] Was it King Solomon and the Ecclesiast [09:09] who said words can kill just as they can [09:12] heal and some words killed. [09:17] And so [09:19] speaking of anti-semitism in this [09:22] special place, in this particular [09:24] setting, one wonders, [09:27] doesn't the organized world and its [09:29] moral and intellectual leadership [09:31] remember the consequences of [09:32] anti-semitism? [09:35] Some of us in this audience endured [09:37] those consequences. [09:40] We know what it means and we know where [09:43] it leads. [09:46] We were there. [09:48] We saw our parents. We saw our friends [09:51] die [09:53] because of anti-semitism. [09:57] And so this is my plea [09:59] to the United Nations [10:02] which I issue together with you, my [10:04] friend, as the Secretary General. [10:07] Help us fight it. [10:09] Help us disarm it. [10:12] To do so would be in the interest of the [10:15] United Nations, for it would serve the [10:18] cause of humanity at large. [10:21] For hatred is dangerous. [10:24] Hatred is contagious. [10:27] Hatred is a cancer that goes from limb [10:30] to limb, from person to person, from [10:33] group to group. [10:35] He or she who hates Jews [10:38] hates all minorities. [10:41] all those who are different, [10:44] he or she who hates Jews will end up [10:46] hating everybody [10:48] and then himself. [10:51] So therefore I believe that when we urge [10:54] you [10:57] to fight anti-semitism with vigor, [11:00] talent, imagination, [11:03] devotion. [11:05] It is because we want to save other [11:08] people as well. [11:10] And so in conclusion I will read from [11:12] the next novel. It's a story of a of a [11:17] little city a shuttle and there was a [11:20] pogram [11:22] and at the end at the end the enemies [11:27] set the entire Jewish quarter on fire [11:32] happened in the 16th century. [11:35] And the chronicler, the one who [11:37] survived, [11:38] wrote, [11:40] "I was stepping back and back, but the [11:43] distance remained unchanged. [11:46] The prey of death, [11:48] the price of life, [11:51] the city was burning, and I watched it [11:53] burn. The house of study, the trees and [11:57] the walls whipped by fire and wind, the [12:01] cobblestones shattered, the Jewish [12:04] quarter, the churches and the schools, [12:06] the store and the warehouses, [12:09] yellow and red, orange and purple flames [12:12] escaped from them only to return at [12:15] once. [12:17] The shelter and the orphanage, the [12:19] tavern and the synagogue joined by a [12:21] bridge of fire. [12:23] The cemetery was burning. The police [12:26] station was burning. The crips were [12:28] burning. The library was burning. The [12:32] Jewish part and the Christian part were [12:34] burning. [12:35] On that night, man's work yielded to the [12:39] power and judgment of the fire. [12:42] And suddenly I understood with every [12:46] fiber of my being why I was shuddering [12:49] at this vision of horror. [12:53] I had just glimpsed the future. [12:59] The Secretary General and Shashi and [13:02] friends here, [13:04] we must prevent the world from entering [13:10] that fear of that future. [13:13] And the choice [13:15] is always ours. [13:19] Thank you. [13:31] Heat [13:43] up here.
