Dear Louise, I feel that I can address you on a personal level, given our somewhat conjoined backgrounds:
I was also born in 1947, I too lived in Montreal. We both have a link to Osgoode Hall Law School, which I attended and where I am an adjunct professor, just as you taught there. We worked together at the first-ever International Criminal Court seminar in Canada in January, 2002. And, a couple of years ago, we met in Geneva to discuss issues pertaining to the recent Lebanon-Israel war and the "new" UN Human Rights Council. We have a common background in criminal law, with an emphasis on human rights. Me as a practicing lawyer and now as Director of National Affairs of the NGO Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, and you as a judge who worked her way up to the Supreme Court of Canada.
We understand the need for democratic values to be strengthened and the necessity of democracies to be vigilant against terrorism's inroads. I was honoured to be appointed to the Cross Cultural Roundtable on National Security, while you had the distinction of being a prosecutor in the Criminal Tribunals charged with bringing the world's worst offenders to justice.
Why do I go into such detail? Because I and countless other of your admirers are now former admirers.
We are profoundly disappointed by the positions that you have taken vis-a-vis Israel and, more recently, with regards to the Arab Charter on Human Rights and its proclamation of "Zionism as a form of racism........(to be) condemned and efforts must be deployed for their elimination."
You are quoted in the media as claiming that this Charter is an important step towards a regional system of promoting and strengthening human rights. Yet this is a region awash with countries which proudly proclaim their Arab and Islamic character, while being absolutely opposed to Jews (in this case) having equal nation-status rights in the region.
To these States, human rights is a joke and a toy to be played with to obtain the Western world's largesse. To them, peace treaty or no peace treaty, Israel-bashing, based upon the premise that Jews are not entitled to their own homeland, is an established ethos which has led to over 100 years of Jew-baiting, murder, warfare and acts of terrorism.
Most sinister is the Charter's call for the elimination of Zionism. And let there be no mistake or misunderstanding of what these States ultimately mean when they say what they say about Zionism. They mean the eradication of a democratic, Jewish State which is home to more than Jews. It means the end of the Zionist dream which had its modern start when the journalist Theodore Herzl witnessed virulent antisemitism coming from "civoilized" Frenchmen purportedly dedicated to liberty, equality and fraternity, during the Dreyfus Affair. It means the continuation of what Winston Churchill called "this horrific crime that has no name." The crime that we now call the Holocaust. It may even mean war, as has happened several times. It certainly means further acts of terrorism, as is now occurring.
The Charter's preamble, repeated in article 2, is an exact echo of the odious, ill-advised and now discredited "Zionism is racism" UN resolution, proferred and championed by the same Arab nations as are behind this Charter. Did you approve of that resolution too? Be honest, tell us if you did. Don't hide behind the rhetoric of legalese mumbo jumbo. Come out of the closet and let us see you for what you realluy are.
But, if you don't believe that Zionism (the Jewish aspiration to a National Homeland) is racism and if you don't believe that Zionism should be eliminated, because the Jews, like the Arabs and the Muslems, like the English and the French, like the Italians and the Chinese, like everyone everywhere, have a right to a homeland of their own, then please say so and let us see if you are still the champion of justice. .
To have someone of your background and stature applaud the Arab Charter's out and out racism is profoundly disappointing, disheartening, embarrassing and perplexing. Those of us who know you and your past works are aghast. We implore you to speak out against this terrible document which does nothjing to advance human rights or peace in the Middle East. We beg you to be a true champion of human rights.
You see, I still want to believe in the Louise Arbour that I am conjoined with.
Leo Adler Director of National Affairs Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies Toronto, Canada
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