This Week in Israeli History: Zionism is Racism (According to UN), Hanna Senesh and Chaim Weizmann

 
UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 - Zionism is Racism
On November 10, 1975, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution (by vote of 72 to 35) that dubbed Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination. The initiative was sponsored by twenty five Middle-Eastern and African countries that were politically backed by the Soviet Union.
The Arab, African, and Soviet coalition sought to delegitimize Israel (and by association the United States) on the world stage. Some allege that it was their ultimate goal to have Israel expelled from the United Nations and replaced by the Palestine Liberation Organization.
On the same day, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Chaim Herzog (who went on to be Israel's 6th president) summed up the resolution with these words: "For us, the Jewish people, this resolution based on hatred, falsehood and arrogance, is devoid of any moral or legal value. For us, the Jewish people, this is no more than a piece of paper and we shall treat it as such." After his speech, Herzog held up the resolution and ripped it in half.
Sixteen years later in 1991, the resolution was revoked.
This resolution was merely another episode in the long history of anti-Israel bias at the United Nations, a bias that was confirmed by current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his predecessor Kofi Annan.
Since its formation in 2006, the United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has issued more condemnations against Israel than all other countries combined. In addition, at the UNHRC’s tri-yearly session where they discuss the top 10 items facing human rights, Israel has the only permanent spot at Agenda Item 7.
Hannah Senesh
Hannah was born in 1921 in Budapest, Hungary. The anti-Semitic sentiment in Budapest led to her involvement with the Zionist movement, and in 1939, she immigrated to Mandatory Palestine and joined the Haganah.
After the news of Nazi atrocities reached the Holy Land, Hannah volunteered with the British army to parachute into Nazi occupied territory and rescue Jews. Only 33 of the 240 Jewish volunteers passed the test and were selected to jump into Nazi territory, and she was one of them.
In 1944, Senesh and her squad parachuted into Yugoslavia, where they spent three months gathering information with partisan fighters. When they crossed the border into Nazi occupied Hungary, Senesh was caught and cruelly tortured, but did not break or divulge any information about her squad or mission.
Hannah was sentenced to death and remained strong and unwavering until the end; she refused to beg for clemency or wear the traditional blindfold when facing execution. On November 7, 1944, she was executed. She was only 23. In 1950, her remains were brought to Israel and laid to rest in Mount Herzl.
The following poem was found in Channa's cell after her execution:
“One - two - three... eight feet long
Two strides across, the rest is dark...
Life is a fleeting question mark
One - two - three... maybe another week.
Or the next month may still find me here,
But death, I feel is very near.
I could have been 23 next July
I gambled on what mattered most, the dice were cast. I lost.”
Chaim Weizmann – Renowned Scientist and First President of Israel
Born in Belarus in 1874, Weizmann first earned worldwide recognition for inventing acetone, an organic cleaning compound used in nail polish remover, but more importantly, the primary component used to manufacture explosives.
The invention of acetone was critical in giving England an upper hand in WWI, and enabled Weizmann to forge strong diplomatic ties with the English government.
Weizmann paved the way for greater education in Israel. He founded The Weizmann Institute of Science, which according to U.S magazine, The Scientist, was labeled “the best place in the world to work in academia among non-US institutions,” and helped establish the Technion – the famous Israeli institute for technology.
He was one of the most prominent Zionist leaders and is credited with convincing Arthur Balfour to pass the Balfour Declaration, as well as persuading US President Harry Truman to support the creation of the state.
Weizmann became the first President of Israel, a position that he filled until his death on November 9, 1952.