STATEMENT: about the possible appointment of Moratinos as the UN person in charge to monitor antisemitism

A few hours ago different agencies and leading Israeli press media informed about the appointment (1) of Miguel Ángel Moratinos as UN Commissioner for the fight against antisemitism.

It is necessary to remember that as a member of the Spanish Government of President Zapatero he was permanently hostile to the Jewish State and was in favour of its enemies. In this link we show (2) proof of this bias and hostility towards Israel of the current High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations in the United Nations since January 2019.

The news of the appointment of Moratinos as the person responsible for the fight against antisemitism in the United Nations immediately produced reactions of astonishment and rejection, both on the domestic in Spain (3) and international level (4).

Later, it seems this appointment has been informally denied (5), for which, given the career of Moratinos, we are enormously happy about.

However, it seems that the source of the apparent misunderstanding (6) is no other than an official communication in which the agency of the Alliance of Civilizations of the UN in which Moratinos is the High Representative seems to claim the responsibility for the fight against antisemitism in the name of the UN.

We should remind of the more than controversial nature of this agency, designed in times of Zapatero and Kofi Annan (7), and financed since then mainly by Turkey, Spain and Qatar (8).

Spain’s financing of this agency with questionable contents and objectives continued with the Government of Rajoy, even in the worst of the economic crisis (9) that affected Spain.

The fact that an individual with such very hostile attitudes towards the Jewish State, including constant criminalization in the style of classic libels, could justify, according to the definition of antisemitism (9) of IHRA, a debate on whether Mr Moratinos has in fact antisemitic behaviours.

In any case, nobody with such a controversial, questionable, and doubtful curriculum in this matter, much closer to open hostility than to mere neutrality, should be in charge of a UN agency that declares to seek understanding between cultures. Much less claim competencies in matter of antisemitism on behalf of the UN. So the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, must clarify this point immediately.

STATEMENT: about the possible appointment of Moratinos as the UN person in charge to monitor antisemitism

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