NEW YORK, JANUARY 20 – The United Nations General Assembly adopted today by consensus a resolution which rejects and condemns without any reservation any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event.
The Israeli sponsored resolution came ahead of the January 27 anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and only a few days after a man took hostages at a Texas synagogue. It lists actions countries should take to combat Holocaust denial and distortion — including demanding that social media companies remove posts by deniers and outlines an official definition of Holocaust denial including “intentional efforts to excuse or minimize [its] impact” and “attempts to blame the Jews for causing their own genocide.”
The resolution was approved in the presence of a group of people who survived the Nazi genocide that killed around six million Jews, some two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe, during World War Two. The text commends countries that have “actively engaged in preserving those sites that served as Nazi death camps, concentration camps, forced labour camps, killing sites and prisons during the Holocaust, as well as similar places operated by Nazi-allied regimes, their accomplices or auxiliaries.”
The vote comes on the same day, 80 years ago, during the Wansee Conference, when top Nazi officials discussed and coordinated the genocide of the Jewish people, establishing the system of Nazi death camps.
Italy reaffirmed its firm condemnation and strong rejection of any denial or distortion of the Holocaust, welcoming the adoption, by consensus, of the relevant General Assembly Resolution. Israel and other sponsors called the measure an important step for combating misinformation and ignorance about the disturbing piece of history and events surrounding it.
“Holocaust denial has spread like a cancer. It has spread under our watch. It has spread because people have chosen to be irresponsible and to avoid accountability,” said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. The Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the adoption of the “historic resolution” which rejects and condemns without any reservation any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event”.
The fact that today’s resolution was adopted by consensus “makes it clear that all Member States must condemn and actively combat Holocaust denial”, the UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: “As the Secretary-General has often said, we can never let down our guard in the face of increasing attempts to deny, distort or minimize the Holocaust. We must also adapt and respond to new forms of antisemitism fueled by ignorance or conspiracy theories, also circulating online”. (@OnuItalia)
