The audience chanted "Shame on the UN," and "Change your Ways," and pointed giant styrofoam fingers toward the UN. Each time Iranian President Ahmadinejad was mentioned, the crowd (wearing clown noses and wigs) booed and held up masks of Ahmadinejad. He was referred to as the "dangerous clown of the Durban circus." The plaza was a sea of clown wigs, red noses, and masks.
Professor Alan Dershowitz with StandWithUs CEO, Roz Rothstein
Simon Deng, who escaped from slavery, explained why he especially appreciates freedom and why he stands with Israel. Charles Jacobs, who introduced Deng, called on people everywhere to oppose slavery and other human rights crimes by proudly standing up for the truth and putting pressure on those who ignore real suffering in the world, like the United Nations constantly does. Filmmaker Ami Horowitz, who recently released his film about the incompetence of the United Nations, offered ideas about what the audience could do to make a difference. He argued that the United States should stop funding the UN as long as it continues to make a mockery of the founding ideals that led to its formation after World War II. StandWithUs has been taking Ami Horowitz on tour to college campuses with his film.
Awards were given for the best costumes. Hila Chase who was dressed as a trapeze artist, won first place. There were jugglers, face painters, and performers on stilts who contributed to the carnival atmosphere and underscored the very serious point that UN should be mocked, not respected.
"We know that our message got across, and we will not be silent while the UN continues to abuse our trust and its own ideals. Something is pathologically wrong when an organization dedicated to human rights gives a platform to someone like Ahmadinejad. He is inciting genocide against Jews, denies the Holocaust occurred, tortures and murders his political oppositions, oppresses women, persecutes gays and religious minorities, and is racing to build nuclear weapons. He is the antithesis of what the United Nations is supposed to stand for. Yet he is invited to speak instead of being arrested for human rights abuses while the UN focuses all its attention on the one Jewish state in the world. It is time for Americans and others to demand that the UN change its ways. We and all the people who protested here in NYC will not stop protesting until the UN finally adheres to its own founding principles," said Rothstein.
