Saying it is being used as a platform to attack Israel, Jewish groups have attacked the Vatican's decision to send a delegation to the United Nations world conference on racism known as Durban 2. The Jewish groups criticised the Vatican just before diplomats walked out of the conference when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Israel of establishing a "cruel and repressive racist regime" over Palestinians, Haaretz reports.
"By participating, the Vatican has given its endorsement to what is being prepared there (against Israel)," Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
Shimon Samuels, head of the European office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the Vatican "is giving a seal of approval in the hate campaign" against Israel.
"This is not a position on which one can hedge," Samuels said. "You can't have it both ways. The Vatican is a powerful voice and (a boycott) could have had a strong demonstrative effect."
But Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi defended the Vatican's presence and said a disputed conference text was now "acceptable" because objectionable parts had been deleted.
The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants expressed its "deep disappointment" that the Vatican did not join the boycott.
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the Vatican should have boycotted the talks after it learned that Ahmadinejad would attend.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Source (CTHUS)
SV (ED)