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German Newspaper Roundup: ‘Ahmadinejad Should Not Be Given a Platform’

Der Spiegel:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predictably lambasted Israel at the UN anti-racism conference, prompting a mass walk-out by Western diplomats. German newspapers on Tuesday praise Berlin for deciding to boycott the meeting.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been expected to cause a stir at the UN anti-racism conference and he didn’t disappoint. Ahmadinjad, who has a history of denying the Holocaust and who once called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” used the platform of the Geneva meeting to launch a tirade against Israel.

Over 40 diplomats representing Western nations walked out of the hall as soon as Ahmadinjad began to attack Israel, calling it a “cruel and repressive racist regime.” Meanwhile the Iranian delegates applauded their hard-line leader.

Several Western countries, including the United States and Germany, had boycotted the conference before the event out of fear that it could become a platform for anti-Semitic sentiments and would be dominated by unfair criticism of Israel. The previous UN anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa in 2001 descended into chaos when the US and Israel walked out after some Arab states sought to equate Zionism with racism.

Ahmadinejad’s speech produced exactly the kind of language the boycotters had feared. Speaking on the day that Israel commemorated the Holocaust, the Iranian president said that the US and Europe had helped establish Israel after World War II at the expense of the Palestinians. He said a nation had been made homeless “under the pretext of Jewish suffering.”

Washington immediately slammed the speech as “vile and hateful” while the Vatican called it “extremist and unacceptable.” Top UN officials, who are now desperately trying to salvage the conference, deplored the speech. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon said he was disappointed that the speech had been used to “accuse, divide and even incite,” directly opposing the aim of the meeting.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told reporters that she was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the comments. She described Ahmadinejad as someone who “traditionally makes obnoxious statements,” and said that delegates should not allow him to “sabotage” the conference.

France is one of the EU countries that decided to attend the conference, and on Tuesday its foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said that the conference was still on the right track despite the mass walkout. He told Europe1 Radio that it was not “a failure but the beginning of a success,” and expressed hope that the conference would approve a UN declaration on racism on Tuesday night.

Germany, on the other hand, had opted to boycott the UN meeting, sharing Washington’s concerns that it could descend into a platform to criticize Israel.

German newspapers on Tuesday are united in their praise of the Berlin government’s decision. Many lash out at the UN for giving Ahmadinejad a platform to air his anti-Israeli views.

The center-right Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“On the very first day, the conference offered Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a stage from which he predictably attacked Israel. Those who provide the Iranian president with an audience do not automatically agree with him. However they do risk allowing the tirades to be perceived as just one legitimate opinion among many. Many delegations therefore felt compelled to leave the hall.”

“The German government spared itself this and sent out a clear signal with its first ever boycott of a UN conference. That was necessary, not just because of its responsibility to Israel. Anyone who is searching for dialogue with Iran also has to prevent misunderstandings and draw a red line.”

The conservative Die Welt writes:

“Germany, along with a number of other nations, was criticized yesterday for not sending delegates to the UN anti-racism conference in Geneva.”

“Why should one listen to a man who has denied the Holocaust repeatedly, at an anti-racism conference of all places, and on the very day that Israel commemorates the victims of the mass murder and on the 120th birthday of (Adolf Hitler), the man who was responsible for the crime?”

“It is a sign of decency and also of political common sense, when members of the United Nations do not in every instance act under the motto of ‘being there is everything’ or honor the most unspeakable cynicism with their presence. The German government should be praised for its clarity and constancy.”

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

“It is absolutely right that Germany does not allow itself to be misused as a backdrop to tirades against Israel and the West and that it kept away from the so-called anti-racism conference. Just how right this was has already been shown on the first day of the conference, when the Iranian president predictably sounded off about America and ‘racist Zionism,’ prompting the European delegates to leave the hall — as they had to do. The EU countries could have spared themselves this embarrassment, this fiasco.

“The UN was also duped. Its general secretary spoke of his disappointment about the boycott by Western countries … . However one should be shocked about the self-absorption of these people who do nothing to stop an event of this kind being seized by forces that themselves crush human rights and oversee terrible regimes.”

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:

“The fact that the German government decided to boycott the conference has to be greeted in the light of the speech by the sinister character from Tehran. This government did the right thing.”

“There were two options — boycotting the conference, because it was clear what was going to happen, or only leaving the hall when the man began to make public his abstruse rubbish. Obstinate know-it-alls like Ahmadinejad should not be given a platform.”

In an op-ed piece for SPIEGEL ONLINE, Henryk M. Broder writes:

“The whole conference is a joke. Its subversive humor is underlined by the fact that states such as Cuba, Libya and Iran were particularly active in the preparations — countries famous for their respect for human rights and freedom of expression and religion.”

“Now the anti-racism conference has been deprived of its claim to universal representation by the boycott by the US, Germany, the Netherlands and a handful of other states. Nevertheless, it is not meaningless. The appearance by the Iranian president made clear what kind of racism he and his allies want to protect under the umbrella of the UN and what kind they want to fight.”

“It’s not only large companies such as Opel, Saab and GM that are struggling to stay in business. The United Nations could soon file for bankruptcy too.”

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