UN President skips Holocaust Memorial after Jewish leaders threaten walkout

Facing a possible walkout by Jewish leaders, General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto skipped U.N. Holocaust Memorial this morning. According to Harretz:

D'Escoto, who has repeatedly made virulently anti-Israel statements, was to be the event's host by virtue of his official position and was scheduled give the opening speech.

Last year, the General Assembly president likened Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza to "the apartheid of an earlier era," and tried to ban Israel's envoy to the UN from speaking at a ceremony to mark 60 years since the institution adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

AJC Executive Director David A. Harris told Haaretz that d'Escoto had chosen not to attend the event because he knew "he did not belong" there. Harris said D'Escoto also mostly likely understood that "his presence would have insulted the event because of his viscious attacks on Israel.

The U.N. General Assembly set Jan. 27 was set as International Holocaust Rememberance Day in 2005. It is to honor the victims of the Nazi era and is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. The associated U.N. resolution rejects denial of the Holocaust, and condemns discrimination and violence based on religion or ethnicity.

Professor Gabriela Shalev, Israel's ambassador to the UN, said in her speech to the assembly:

To remain silent and indifferent to the horrors of the Holocaust is probably the greatest sin of all, let alone denying it. We have a responsibility to act against the forces of anti-Semitism, bigotry and racism in any form."