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DE RUEHGV #0410/01 1551646
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 031646Z JUN 08
FM USMISSION GENEVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6530
INFO RUEHSW/AMEMBASSY BERN 8430
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2740

UNCLAS GENEVA 000410 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SECSTATE FOR IO-RHS, DRL-MLGA, L-HRR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM UNHRC
SUBJECT: SPECIAL ENVOY ON ANTI-SEMITISM RICKMAN MEETS 
JEWISH AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IN GENEVA 
 
¶1.  Summary:  On the margins of a conference in Geneva on the 
Durban Review Conference, Special Envoy on Anti-Semitism 
Gregg Rickman held meetings on May 26 and 27 with leaders of 
the Jewish community, representatives of the Geneva cantonal 
government, and officials from other UN missions and the 
Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR).  Dr. 
Rickman concluded that much remains to be done to fully 
address anti-Semitism in Switzerland and in Geneva-based 
international organizations. END SUMMARY. 
 
JEWISH COMMUNITY LEADERS 
------------------------ 
 
¶2. Dr. Rickman heard two somewhat different assessments of 
the severity of the anti-Semitism problem in Switzerland in a 
meeting with two leading Jewish leaders.  Ron Aufseesser, a 
leader of Geneva's moderate Jewish community, stressed that 
the community had strong ties with local officials and that 
it had found workable solutions (including a compromise that 
now allows the use of Swiss land for a Jewish cemetary) for 
most difficulties.  Johann Gurfinkiel, the president of 
CICAD, the main Jewish political organization in francophone 
Switzerland, showed somewhat less satisfaction with the 
relationship with authorities, but offered few direct 
criticisms beyond mentioning some difficulties CICAD has had 
in prioritizing religious sensitization in education; it was 
difficult to address universally, as each canton had to be 
approached individually, but the Geneva canton had a quite 
good education department.  CICAD organizes an annual trip to 
Auschwitz for teachers that Gurfinkiel found had had good 
results.  Both thought that most anti-Semitic incidents show 
up in the press and were mostly associated with events in the 
Middle East. 
 
¶3. Two other major community leaders, Jean-Marc Brunschwig 
and David Bernstein, stressed that the Jewish community had 
made strides in gaining political influence in Switzerland. 
They described how CICAD and Jewish organizations had reached 
out to Swiss Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey and to Swiss 
legislators.  When Calmy-Rey took her recent trip to Iran, 
then, those organizations had met with her to express 
opposition, and had also generated opposition to the trip 
among legislators.  Just as those efforts were beginning to 
bear fruit, however, international protests, including by 
U.S. organizations, had evoked a backlash in Calmy-Rey's 
favor among many in the Swiss community who saw such 
criticism as external interference.  (Aufseesser had made a 
similar point in the earlier meeting, implying that while the 
U.S. push for Swiss banks to relinquish Holocaust victims' 
assets to their inheritors was the only way anything would 
have been resolved, it came across as "brutal" in the Swiss 
context.)  While the former head of Geneva's Muslim community 
had been cooperative in relations with the Jewish community, 
the new head was far more radical, raising concerns about a 
spike of anti-Semitism in future, Brunschwig and Bernstein 
noted. 
 
¶4. Brunschwig and Bernstein said that while anti-Semitism 
among the Swiss was a manageable problem that was being well 
monitored, it was a far more serious problem within 
Geneva-based international organizations.  They cited schools 
involved with international organizations in which some 
teachers had expressed anti-Semitic views, and hoped an 
effective monitoring system could be established. 
 
¶5. Dr. Rickman visited the Hekhal Haness synagogue, which 
suffered from an arson attack a year ago.  Synagogue leaders 
reported that, while the police were aware that the fire had 
resulted from a criminal attack, they had failed to identify 
the perpetrator(s) and had few additional leads to pursue 
their investigation.  Repairs of the badly damaged synagogue 
are well advanced. 
 
GENEVA CANTON OFFICIALS 
----------------------- 
 
¶6.  Dr. Rickman had a useful meeting with:  Ivana Vrbrica, 
the former head of secondary education in the Geneva public 
schools; Andre Castella, the Geneva canton delegate on 
integration; and Jacques Pahud, head of the judicial police. 
Vrbrica noted that, while Geneva schools attempted to teach 
remembrance of the Holocaust and foster "good citizenship 
skills", they did not address specific crises in the world 
that might give rise to anti-Semitic sentiments.  The schools 
relied on many organizations, including CICAD, for expertise. 
 School tours of World War II-era border crossings covered 
all aspects of persecution suffered by those who sought 
refuge in Switzerland.  Castella explained that Geneva 
cantonal law concerning discrmination is derived from the 
 
Federal Law on Foreigners (2002).  He saw a great need to 
cultivate diversity and enable the integration of newcomers 
to the city, especially youth; the canton was reworking its 
information about racism.  Castella said most Muslim 
immigrants originated in the Balkans; problems from this 
group often resulted from the socio-economic difficulties of 
their immigration situation.  West African asylum seekers, 
though few in number, presented similar difficulties and 
problems; they engaged in street violence, not terrorism. 
Pahud described the very low number of reported anti-Semitic 
incidents (two graffiti incidents in the last five years); he 
has a record only of formal reports of anti-Semitic 
incidents.  Permits were required for all demonstrations, 
including by pro-Palestinian groups, but displays of 
anti-Semitic signs would not necessarily be investigated 
unless there was a complaint; all protests had been peaceful. 
 He also hypothesized that the Israeli Mission in Geneva may 
plant incidents to test the Geneva government's security 
protection. 
 
OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (OHCHR) 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶7.  Dr. Rickman opened his meeting with High Commissioner for 
Human Rights (HCHR) Louise Arbour by asking her to consider 
making a strong statement against anti-Semitism and Holocaust 
denial.  Arbour pointed to her statement on UN Holocaust 
Memorial Day and other occasions, but implied she did not see 
the need for anything further at the moment.  On the question 
of Israel's treatment in the Human Rights Council (HRC), 
Arbour said that 90 percent of the Israel-specific 
initiatives were indeed in bad faith and merged a critique of 
the state of Israel with anti-Semitism; while the HCHR had no 
mandate to protect any one state, the office did need to 
stand up once criticism of the state crossed into criticism 
of a people.  However, she pointed out that the Canadian 
Israel and Jewish Association (an NGO recently harrassed by 
Iran in Durban Review Conference preparations) confused 
matters by including the name of a nation in its title; she 
also emphasized that it was essential to retain the ability 
to critique all states, including Israel, in the HRC. 
Islamophobia issues in the HRC were also brought up in both 
good and bad faith.  She said that the difficulty of 
distinguishing between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism would 
remain intractable until problems in the Middle East were 
solved.  Arbour asked that the U.S. and other Western and 
Other Group (WEOG) governments be more aware that their 
tendency to privilege civil and political rights over 
economic, social, and cultural rights is perceived as 
hypocritical by others.  Arbour was not open to Rickman's 
suggestion that she create a Special Advisor on anti-Semitism 
and Islamophobia, saying she thought it would encourage the 
tendency not to address discrimination of people who lack an 
HRC or OHCHR category. 
 
¶8.  In a separate meeting, Michael Wiener (of OHCHR) said 
that Special Rapporteur (SR) on the Freedom of Religion Asma 
Jahangir brought up anti-Semitism whenever relevant both on 
country visits as well as in communications sent to 
countries.  To draw more attention to the issue in reluctant 
countries, she had started following up on allegations with 
her own assessments, whether or not she received a response 
to the initial communication.  Country visits during which 
she addressed anti-Semitism include:  the United Kingdom, 
France, Tajikistan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Israel.  Wiener 
said SR Jahangir was keenly interested in preventing 
incitement on both sides in Israel, and particularly in 
efforts to prevent teaching discriminatory attitudes to 
children.  Many visit requests are outstanding, including to 
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).  Jahangir has not 
commented on the issue of anti-Semitic KSA textbooks and 
Wiener noted that addressing the textbook issue was delicate 
and a full analysis required access to the actual books.  Dr. 
Rickman said he had access to translations of the books in 
question, and Wiener indicated the SR's office would be 
grateful for them.  Jahangir has not addressed the question 
of similar Iranian textbooks, either, nor did her predecessor 
do so when he visited in 2005.  However, Jahangir does 
regularly bring up anti-Semitism and religious discrimination 
(particularly against the Baha'i community) in communications 
and press releases about Iran. 
 
¶6. Wiener also backstops the office of the SR on Racism, 
Doudou Diene and went on to discribe SR Diene's work.  Wiener 
pointed out that the resolution establishing the mandate 
obligates the SR to cover Islamophobia, Christianophobia, and 
anti-Semitism, but that SR Diene had pushed to include a 
wider range of religions in that mandate.  Wiener remarked 
that Diene had been "quite blunt" in condemning the Iranian 
 
president's call to wipe out Israel.  On the issue of 
defamation of religion, Wiener noted that SR Jahangir is no 
fan of the concept and SR Diene has said, in the context of 
Durban review, that he would prefer a focus on incitement to 
religious and racial hatred over the focus on defamation of 
religions themselves.  Wiener and Dr. Rickman briefly 
discussed the Toledo education guidelines for encouraging 
religious awareness and tolerance; while Wiener emphasized 
that the guidelines were not binding, he did find them to be 
a good list of best practices. 
 
DISCUSSIONS WITH OTHER MISSIONS TO THE UN 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  Dr. Rickman and Israeli Ambassador Isaac Levanon 
brainstormed on how to set up rapid response talking points 
for defenders against anti-Semitism around the world.  They 
expressed a shared desire to combat anti-Semitism with the 
same vigour that its supporters display.  Ambassador Levanon 
suggested joint US and Israel cooperation to draw up such 
points; Dr. Rickman pointed to his recent report as a 
possible source upon which Israel might draw for such 
pre-drafted responses.  They also discussed the venue for the 
Durban Review Conference, with Ambassador Levanon showing a 
preference for New York, where he felt the public would be 
more "on our side"; he said Jerusalem favored Vienna, where 
laws against anti-Semitism might curb a repeat of the 
disastrous NGO Forum of the 2001 conference (note: Geneva was 
chosen as the review conference venue that afternoon. End 
note.).  Ambassador Levanon raised the prospect of a separate 
conference at the same time as the review conference to 
highlight the problems of the main conference. 
 
¶8.  Dr. Rickman asked Egyptian Ambassador Sameh Shoukra and 
Minister Plenipotentiary Ihab Gamaleldin their views on the 
Canadian NGO CIJA (see above note).  Ambassador Shoukra said 
the problem was a procedural one:  CIJA chose not to answer a 
"last and crucial question" about their support for the 
Durban review process.  He further stated that the GOE had no 
ability and no desire to place limits on any NGO forum at the 
Durban Review Conference; they were focused on maintaining a 
consensual government process.  When asked about parallels 
between Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, Ambassador Shoukra 
distinguished between the defamation issue, which arose from 
a concern to protect all faiths, and Islamophobia, which was 
racial discrimination against Muslims.  He appreciated the 
consistency of the U.S. position of protecting all free 
speech, as opposed to European laws forbidding some 
defamatory speech, but not defamations of Islam.   Minister 
Gamaleldin took issue with his experience in the Human Rights 
department of the MFA in Cairo, where he claimed that the 
U.S. had asked him to prohibit anti-Semitic cartoons under an 
anti-defamation law.  Dr. Rickman  thought that request 
probably had been in reference to cartoons in official 
Egyptian media; in response, Ambassador Shoukra pointedly 
remarked that official Egyptian media is "just as free as the 
BBC"--and suggested the U.S. line might have more 
consistently encouraged any and all cartoons in Egyptian 
official media.  Ambassador Shoukra expressed hope of finding 
an approach to defamation that might bring the U.S. on board. 
 
 
¶9.  Dr. Rickman's discussion with Marghoob Saleem Butt, from 
the Pakistani Mission to the UN, focused on the distinction 
between criticism of the state of Israel and anti-Semitism. 
While Butt said Pakistan works against anti-Semitism 
throughout the UN system and abhors it as much as it abhors 
Islamophobia, he saw a need to preserve a way to critique 
actions of the state of Israel.  Regarding Pakistani 
promotion of anti-defamation of religion language in the UN 
system, Butt freely acknowledged the difference in opinion on 
the legality of protecting a concept versus a protecting a 
person, but said that when one religion was linked to a 
certain perception of all its adherants, the two protections 
were intertwined.  Dr. Rickman asked about the blurring of 
lines that led to Jews in other countries being blamed for 
Israel's actions, to which Butt responded that this was 
"stupid, and the same argument that links all Muslims to 
terrorism."  He also emphasized the OIC position that a new 
instrument is needed to address Islamophobia and the 
defamation of religion. 
TICHENOR