Remembering ‘Zionism Is racism’

OPINION:

Fifty years ago this week, on Nov. 10, 1975, the United Nations General Assembly fatally betrayed its founding ideals and permanently stained its credibility. With the passage of Resolution 3379, declaring that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination,” the United Nations exposed its ugly underbelly.

That infamous lie — that Zionism is racism — belongs to the same ideological family as Nazism and communism, the twin totalitarian evils of the 20th century. It is therefore no surprise to discover that it was a calculated product of Soviet disinformation, part of a campaign to delegitimize Israel and discredit the West.

It was a banner day for hypocrisy: a triumph of propaganda over principle. Yet even in the midst of that darkness, two voices were raised above the din of dishonor — those of Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog and U.S. Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Their speeches, delivered in the General Assembly that day, remain among the most stirring expressions of moral clarity ever heard at the United Nations. Herzog, who would later become Israel’s president, stood before the world and tore the defamatory resolution to pieces at the podium, declaring it “born of hatred, nurtured in falsehood, and dedicated to the proposition that all Jews are evil.” He told the assembly:

“On this issue, the world, as represented in this hall, has divided itself into good and bad, decent and evil, human and debased. … We, the Jewish people, will recall in history our gratitude to those nations who stood up and were counted. … I know that this episode will have strengthened Zionism as it has weakened the United Nations.”

Moynihan, speaking for the United States, responded with thunderous defiance and eloquence: “The United States does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act. … A great evil has been loosed upon the world. The abomination of antisemitism … has been given the appearance of international sanction. … This day will live in infamy. … Grave and perhaps irreparable harm will be done to the cause of human rights itself.”

As historian Gil Troy, author of the excellent (and definitive) book “Moynihan’s Moment,” correctly pointed out, Moynihan “understood that the resolution was an attempt to demean America by demeaning its ally. He repudiated what he would later call this ‘Big Red Lie’ as an assault on democracy and decency.”

Herzog and Moynihan, standing almost alone, spoke not only for their nations but also for civilization itself. They embodied the moral kinship between Israel and the United States: two democracies bound by a shared belief in freedom, human dignity and the conviction that truth and good must prevail over falsehood and evil.

It is one of history’s ironies and a reminder of what moral leadership once looked like that Moynihan, a Democrat, was appointed by a Republican president, Gerald Ford. At a time of political division, defending Israel and defending truth were not partisan acts; they were moral acts and American acts.

Resolution 3379 was finally repealed in 1991, but the damage it did still lingers. The campaign to delegitimize Israel, born in that same ideological soil, continues today, repackaged in new rhetoric but animated by the same hatred. Once again, hateful lies are dressed up as calls for justice, and those who champion Israel’s right to exist are accused of moral transgression.

The world still pays a price for that dark day. By branding the Jewish people’s national liberation movement as racist, the United Nations inverted the very meaning of human rights. It gave a patina of legitimacy to antisemitism and taught generations that bigotry could be cloaked in the language of progress and liberation.

As we mark the 50th anniversary of that infamous resolution, we should remember both aspects of that day: the darkness of the U.N. betrayal and hypocrisy, and the courage and moral authority of Herzog and Moynihan’s defiance. The first reminds us how easily institutions can be corrupted by cynical malevolence; the second reminds us that truth, upheld with courage, can still pierce the darkness.

For those who cherish freedom, truth, and the dignity of people and of nations, Nov. 10, 1975, must be remembered not only as a day of shame but also as a day when two men stood tall and spoke for what is eternally right.

• Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, served in Congress from 1983 to 2013. He was chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Middle East subcommittee. Gil Kapen is a former Republican House Foreign Affairs Committee staffer and is now executive director of the American Jewish International Relations Institute-B’nai B’rith International.