United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379
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United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, adopted on 10 November 1975, "Determines that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination" with 72 votes in favour, 35 votes against, and 32 abstentions. It was revoked by Resolution 46/86, adopted on 16 December 1991 with 111 votes in favour, 25 votes against, and 13 abstentions.<ref name="NYT: U.N. Repeals Its '75 Resolution Equating Zionism With Racism">Template:Cite web</ref> The vote for Resolution 3379 was held nearly one year after the adoption of Resolution 3236 and Resolution 3237: the former recognized the "Question of Palestine" and invited the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to participate in international diplomacy; and the latter designated the PLO as a non-member Assembly observer following the "Olive Branch Speech" by Palestinian political leader Yasser Arafat.
In the context of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted on 10 November 1963, Resolution 3379 officially condemned the national ideology of the State of Israel. It was sponsored by the Arab League and a number of Muslim-majority countries, and was chiefly supported by in-favour votes from the Second World and many African countries. Israel, which had been granted United Nations membership in 1949, voted against Resolution 3379 and subsequently condemned it, and was chiefly supported by the First World.
Background
Jewish nationalism in Palestine
In July 1920, at the San Remo conference, a Class "A" League of Nations mandate over Palestine was allocated to the British. The preamble of the mandate document declared:
Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.<ref name="AvalonPalmanda">Template:Cite web</ref>
UN Partition Plan for Palestine
On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending "to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for Palestine, and to all other Members of the United Nations the adoption and implementation, with regard to the future government of Palestine, of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union" as Resolution 181 (II).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The plan contained a proposal to terminate the British Mandate for Palestine and partition Palestine into "independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem." On 14 May 1948, the day on which the British Mandate over Palestine expired, the Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, and approved a proclamation which declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On 11 May 1949, Israel was admitted to membership in the United Nations.<ref>Admission of Israel to UN: Retrieved 24 May 2013 Template:Webarchive</ref>
Text of Resolution 3379
The full text of Resolution 3379:<ref>Resolution 3379: Elimination of all forms of racial discrimination Template:Webarchive. UNGA, 10 November 1975 (doc.nr. A/RES/3379 (XXX))</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Blockquote
Votes of Resolution 3379
Response
Israel
In his address to the United Nations General Assembly the same day, 10 November 1975, Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog stated:<ref name="Blaisdell2014">Template:Cite book</ref> Template:Blockquote
Herzog ended his statement, while holding a copy of the resolution, with these words: Template:Blockquote As he concluded his speech, Herzog tore the resolution in half.
The name of the "UN Avenue" in Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv was switched to the "Zionism Avenue" as a response to the UN's decision.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
United States
Before the vote, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, warned that, "The United Nations is about to make anti-Semitism international law."<ref>Gil Troy, "Moynihan's Moment: America's Fight Against Zionism is Racism", page 134</ref> He delivered a speech against the resolution, including the famous line, "[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."<ref>Stanley Meisler, United Nations: A History, 2011, page 215</ref>
In Campbell, California, in the United States, a group of high school students attempted to solicit signatures on the premises of a local shopping center for a petition against Resolution 3379. The result was the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins (1980) that supported states' rights to expand the exercise of free speech, which California held was legal in what were considered public areas of a shopping mall.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Mexico's vote in favor of the resolution led some United States Jews to organize a tourism boycott of Mexico. This ended after Mexican foreign minister Emilio Óscar Rabasa made a trip to Israel (Rabasa shortly afterward was forced to resign).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Revocation
Template:Infobox UN resolution United Nations General Assembly Resolution 46/86, adopted on 16 December 1991, revoked Resolution 3379's designation of Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination.<ref name="NYT: U.N. Repeals Its '75 Resolution Equating Zionism With Racism" /> Israel had made the revocation a condition for its participation in the Madrid Conference of 1991.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The vote on Resolution 46/86 was held shortly after the Gulf War with sponsorship by 88 countries, including the overwhelming majority of both the First World and the Second World, and was chiefly supported by many African countries. The Arab League, most Muslim-majority countries, and four other countries (Cuba, North Korea, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam) voted against it.
In total, the motion to revoke Resolution 3379 received 111 votes in favour, 25 votes against, and 13 abstentions.
Motion by the United States
Resolution 46/86 was raised under pressure from the United States,<ref name="presidency.ucsb.edu">Address to the 46th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. 23 September 1991. The American Presidency Project</ref> and American president George H. W. Bush personally introduced the motion to revoke Resolution 3379 with the following statement:
Text of Resolution 46/86
The full text of the revocation was simply:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
"The General Assembly decides to revoke the determination contained in its resolution 3379 (XXX) of 10 November 1975."
Votes of Resolution 46/86
| In favour (111) 88 states sponsoring |
Abstaining (13) | Against (25) | Absent (15) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Source: United Nations Bibliographic Information System<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | |||||
Legacy
On 21 June 2004, while inaugurating the first United Nations conference on the issue of antisemitism, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan stated that "the actions of the United Nations on the issue of antisemitism have not always been worthy of its ideals. It is deplorable that the General Assembly adopted in 1975 a resolution which assimilated Zionism with racism and I welcome that it later came back on its position".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
References
External links
- United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 (10 November 1975) (Official UN site)
- Report of the Plenary Meeting A/PV.2400 (Official UN site)
- Israeli Ambassador Herzog's response to Zionism is racism resolution (10 November 1975)
- Ambassador Moynihan's response to Zionism is racism resolution
- Video footage of Ambassador Herzog concluding his remarks and tearing the resolution in half (10 November 1975)
- American Jewish Committees' extensive archive of materials on the Zionism is Racism controversy