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Israel ambassador to UN: New report on antisemitism reflects "change in the UN attitude toward Israel"
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - The UN released a report Monday showing a growing trend of antisemitism around the world, and among people of sundry political persuasions.
The report, commissioned by the UN human rights council, was conducted by special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Ahmed Shaheed, who found that antisemitism had taken root not only among white nationalists and Islamists, but also among left-wing social justice-oriented people.
“Individuals claiming to hold anti-racist and anti-imperialist views employ anti-Semitic narratives or tropes in the course of expressing anger at policies or practices of the Government of Israel,” Shaheed wrote in the report.
In a surprise to many, Shaheed added bluntly that the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the state of Israel is “fundamentally anti-Semitic,” which Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon called an “unprecedented” acknowledgment by the international organization.
“The report reflects the [UN’s] organizational change toward Israel,” Danon said, echoed by Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor’s UN liaison Anne Herzberg, who noted it as “one of the first times the UN has addressed the issue of antisemitism in any detail.”