New York, N.Y. . . Leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations today expressed concern over the absence of important historical context in the statement issued by U.N. Secretary General Antόnio Guterres on the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War.
Stephen M. Greenberg, Chairman and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of the Conference of Presidents issued the following statement:
“The official statement by UN Secretary General Antόnio Guterres deals predominantly with Palestinian suffering and wrongly attributes the failure to create a Palestinian state to Israel’s victory in the Six Day War of 1967, and is seriously flawed by the lack of important historical context.
We are disappointed by the absence of any reference to many events over the past seven decades including the Arab rejection of the UN Partition Plan of 1947; the invasion of Israel by forces from five neighboring Arab countries following Israel’s declaration of statehood in May, 1948; the provocations and violations of agreements that drove Israel into a defensive war in 1967; Israel’s strongly urging Jordan, which then occupied the West Bank, not to enter war; and the Arab League Khartoum Resolution after the Six Day War calling for no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel and no negotiations with Israel.
The glaring omissions in the statement are surprising because, since assuming office, Secretary General Guterres has advocated for an end to the biased treatment of Israel in the UN, and his public statements on Israel related issues have been consistently fair.
By focusing his statement primarily on the ‘inalienable rights of the Palestinian people’, we believe the Secretary General missed an opportunity to provide meaningful support for bringing about his goal of the successful resumption of a ‘genuine peace process’, a goal shared by Israel and the overwhelming majority of the Jewish people.”
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