UN pulls Israeli exhibit claiming Palestinian citizens enjoy equality

The UN has removed a number of panels from an Israeli exhibit at its New York headquarters claiming Palestinian citizens of Israel have the same rights as Jews.

Narrated

2 min read

The New Arab

08 Apr, 2016

Palestinian citizens of Israel face institutional discrimination despite the exhibit's claims [Twitter]

An exhibit that claimed that Palestinian citizens of Israel enjoy equality and called Israel the Middle East's "only proven democracy" has been pulled from display at the UN headquarters in New York.

The international body removed the panel, along with two others, in order to ensure that the exhibition would "conform to the purposes and principles" of the organisation.

The claims made by the poster, which boasts of the ability of Arabs to "serve in the Israeli parliament" and "vote in all elections", stand in stark contrast to the reality faced by the country's Palestinian citizens.

Just last month, three Palestinian members of the Israeli parliament were suspended, in a move that was described by the Israeli peace bloc Gush Shalom as being part of Netanyahu's "demagogic campaign against the Arab Knesset Members."


The controversial 'equality' banner that was removed

Adding to the harrowing, and often ridiculous list of anti-Arab prescriptions was news last week from Israel's official religious Conversion Authority that Palestinians are not allowed to become Jewish.

Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz, head of the Conversion Authority, said that applicants for a religious conversion to Judaism must not be "infiltrators" or "Palestinian", among other things.

Another poster that claimed Jerusalem as the "spiritual and physical capital of the Jewish people" was also removed.

On Monday, however, the UN reversed a decision to ban another panel from the exhibition that described Zionism as the "liberation movement of the Jewish people."

This u-turn came after Israel's ambassador to the UN called upon Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Sunday to rescind the decision and "apologise to the Jewish people"

"By disqualifying an exhibition about Zionism, the UN is undermining the very existence of the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people," he said.

Founded by Theodor Herzl in 1896, Zionism was initiated with the goal of achieving the return of Jews to their "unforgettable historical homeland."

This aim, however, has contributed to the forced displacement and killing of Palestinians who already lived in the region, as well as the seizure of vast swathes of land.