UN Passes Israeli Resolution Combating Holocaust Denial on Social Media

Delegation of Holocaust survivors at the UN resolution on Thursday

The United Nations General Assembly approved on Thursday an Israeli-sponsored resolution on combating Holocaust denial on social media, marking the second time ever that Israel has managed to pass a resolution in the assembly.

 
The resolution, backed by dozens of countries and approved by consensus, provides a clear definition of Holocaust denial and makes social media and internet companies responsible for removing such posts.

 
Although the resolution has no enforcement mechanism, it is expected to set a new international standard in combatting Holocaust denial – and UN member countries are expected to adopt it and advance domestic legislation in their own countries to enforce it.

“Social media giants can no longer remain complacent to the hate spread on their platforms” and must take action now, the Israeli ambassador said.

 
The resolution commends countries that have preserved Nazi death camps and other sites from the Holocaust and urges the 193 UN member states “to develop educational programs that will inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide.”

 

Erdan speaking to the UN on Thursday.

It requests the UN and its agencies to continue developing and implementing programs aimed at countering Holocaust denial and distortions and to mobilize civil society and others to provide truthful facts about the Holocaust.

The first Israeli resolution endorsed by the international body designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and was passed in 2005. The date of Thursday’s vote is also symbolic in that it is the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, at which Nazi officials met to coordinate the genocide of European Jewry.

The core provision of the new resolution calls upon UN member states and social media firms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram and Twitter, to take active steps to fight antisemitism and Holocaust denial on the internet and in the media – and demands that the companies take responsibility for removing such content from their platforms.

 
Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, has lobbied over the past year for passage of the resolution, and in the past several weeks, he has been in touch with representatives from various member countries to ensure a majority for its passage and to head off public opposition to the resolution.

 
Five Holocaust survivors were invited to attend the assembly by Erdan, including Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla, who is the son of Greek Holocaust survivors. 

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Erdan and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla at the UN on Thursday.

Erdan spoke tot he assembly describing the decision as “my most important initiative” as a representative of the State of Israel and also as a grandson of Holocaust survivors.

 
He went on condemning the rising efforts in today’s online discourse in denying and questioning the events of the Holocaust. "Although the Nazis documented their actions, Holocaust deniers are growing at an alarming rate."

 
In addition to Erdan’s efforts at the United Nations, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has been lobbying for its passage. The United States and Germany, which support the resolution, have joined Israel in the effort.

 
In a joint statement released by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid expressed their concern with the “increase in Holocaust denial, distortion, and revisionism” while also condemning the use of comparisons in political disputes.

 
They further added that “today’s consensual adoption clearly shows that Holocaust denial is a topic on which the international community stands together and speaks with one voice.”

 
Passage of the resolution also included UN recognition of a definition of Holocaust denial and distortion that is contained in its text and is based on the working definition used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

 
“Holocaust denial is discourse and propaganda that deny the historical reality and the extent of the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis and their accomplices during World War II, known as the Holocaust or the Shoah,” the definition states. “Holocaust denial refers specifically to any attempt to claim that the Holocaust/Shoah did not take place. Holocaust denial may include publicly denying or calling into doubt the use of principal mechanisms of destruction (such as gas chambers, mass shooting, starvation and torture) or the intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people.”

 
And it adds that “Holocaust denial in its various forms is an expression of antisemitism.”

 
The coronavirus pandemic has led to an increase into the amount of material made public that distorts and denies the historical truth about the Holocaust, members of Israel’s UN delegation have said.

 
In drafting the resolution, Ambassador Erdan made use of a report issued several months ago by the London and Washington-based Center for Countering Digital Hate, which found that social media companies have failed in their handling of complaints of antisemitic and Holocaust denial content. The organization found that Holocaust denial appears on social media with almost no oversight, and that about 80 percent of all such posts deny or minimize the extermination of the Jewish people in the Holocaust.

 
Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and memorial said in a statement that it "welcomes today's adoption by the UN General Assembly of the resolution rejecting & condemning Holocaust denial or distortion."

 
Chairman of the Center for Jewish Impact, Robert Singer, released a statement saying, “Eighty years after Nazi leaders decided to deport and murder millions of European Jews, the UN Council meets today, and adopt one of the most significant decisions supporting the Jewish people and combatting Holocaust denial. We welcome the UN's decision that has made that vision a reality.”

 
The ambassadors of Germany, the United States and Russia were also among the speakers after the resolution’s adoption and expressed in the discussion an appreciation for the Israeli initiative.

 
"This decision confirms our commitment to teaching the next generation to prevent the recurrence of past horrors." said the American ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

 
The Iranian delegation opposed the resolution, arguing Israel was exploiting the Jewish people's suffering to blur its crimes against the Palestinians.

 
Facebook dealt with just 10.9 percent of the posts, even though it represents itself as having a strict policy against antisemitic content, the report states.

 
The Associated Press contributed to this report.