Leonard Garment, 1924-2013
UN Watch mourns the passing on Saturday of Leonard Garment. He was 89. Wall Street litigator, adviser to President Richard Nixon, gregarious man with a talent for jazz, and champion of human rights, Mr. Garment will be remembered for many things.
UN Watch pays special tribute to his historic role, as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations, in fighting the U.N.'s infamous Zionism is Racism resolution. Today we publish on the Internet Mr. Garment's powerful Oct. 17, 1975 U.N. speech calling the resolution what it was: "obscene."
____________
Statement by Leonard Garment, United States Representative to the United Nations General Assembly's 3rd Committee (Human Rights), on equating Zionism with racism and racial discrimination, October 17, 1975.
My delegation has read the new proposal before us. It is unusually straightforward. It asks to determine "that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination." As simple as this language is, we are concerned that what may not be fully understood is that this resolution asks us to commit one of the most grievous errors in the 30-year life of this organization. This committee is preparing itself, with deliberation and foreknowledge, to perform a supreme act of deceit, to make a massive attack on the moral realities of the world. Under the guise of a program to eliminate racism the United Nations is at the point of officially endorsing anti-semitism, one of the oldest and most virulent forms of racism known to human history. This draft explicitly encourages the racism known as anti-semitism even as it would have us believe that its words will lead to the elimination of racism. I choose my words carefully when I say that this is an obscene act. The United States protests this act. But protest alone is not enough. In fairness to ourselves we must also issue a warning... Click here to continue reading |
"At a press conference held early this evening, Daniel P. Moynihan, Permanent Representative of the United States, and Leonard Garment, Counselor to the US delegation, answered questions from correspondents concerning the statement which Mr. Garment had just made in the Third Committee on the draft resolution which would equate Zionism with racism and racial discrimination." Seated at the table are Daniel P. Moynihan (right), and Leonard Garment. 17 October 1975. UN Photo/Michos Tzovaras.
