Shalev: UN a 'world of double standards'

Last week's UN conference on racism in Geneva proved once again that the global body has an "obsession" with the Jewish state, according to Israel's ambassador to the UN. Gabriela Shalev planned to tell an audience at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service on Thursday that for Israel, the UN is "a world of double standards, doublespeak and hypocrisy." In talking points released to The Jerusalem Post before the event, Shalev described the "Durban II" Geneva conference as a "farce" that had been hijacked by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad delivered a speech in which he accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians and described Zionism as racism. He was interrupted by clown-wigged protesters. Delegates from 23 European countries and St. Kitts and Nevis left the conference room, while a number of other delegates who remained behind applauded the Iranian president as he spoke. Israel, along with Canada, the US and a handful of other Western nations, boycotted the gathering. Shalev, who has spoken in the past of dancing with her father in the streets of Tel Aviv as a young girl after the UN voted to establish the State of Israel, said Israel would continue to boycott UN events that "seek to attack Israel, the West, and the principles of freedom and human rights." She added that she would not seek consensus or partnership with countries that permit the kind of rhetoric seen in Geneva, but would instead move forward with efforts to share agricultural technology and other expertise with UN-backed development programs.