Dozens of Western delegates participating in the UN racism conference in Geneva walked out of the forum as an act of protest during the keynote speech delivered by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Dozens of western delegates participating in the UN racism conference in Geneva walked out of the forum as an act of protest during the keynote speech delivered by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The delegates rose in unison as the Iranian president began attacking Israel as a racist nation. Ahmadinejad accused Israel of being the "most cruel and racist regime."
In a rambling speech, Ahmadinejad pointed the finger at the United States, Europe and Israel and said they were destabilizing the entire world.
Some European diplomats immediately walked out of the room when Ahmadinejad said Israel was created on the "pretext of Jewish suffering" from World War II.
In all the delegates of 23 nations left the hall in protest – including Jordan and the European Union. UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon remained in his seat.
Ahmadinejad’s address was first interrupted before it even began, as a single protestor wearing a colorful clown wig rose from his seat
and began yelling "racist!" at the president. He was removed from the scene by security personnel. The audience in the hall broke out in applause as he was taken out, and Ahmadinejad asked those present to forgive "these ignorant people."
Even before he spoke, Ahmadinejad became the flash point of a conference already strongly divided over Muslim countries’ attempts to use it to denounce Israel and over their call for a global ban on criticizing Islam.
The United States announced Saturday it would boycott the weeklong meeting, which follows a 2001 conference in South Africa. Muslim condemnation of Israel at the earlier conference angered that country, and the United States, as well.
Organizers have sought to avoid the controversies that marred the earlier meeting but have encountered many of the same issues. Besides the United States and Israel, seven other countries — Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand and Poland — are also declining to participate.
European Union spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann said that, while four EU nations had decided to boycott, others would push to ensure the document adopted by the conference was fair.
"It is essential that the current draft text … does not have any language on defamation of religion, of anti-Semitic nature or targeting specific countries or religions of the world," Hohmann said.