Mayor attacks U.N. ‘hypocrisy’

Press, 12 February 1982, Page 6

Mayor attacks U.N. ‘hypocrisy’

NZPA-Reuter New York Mayor Edward Koch of New Year said yesterday that he was searching the Bible for a quote to engrave in stone across the street from United Nations headquarters to remind diplomats what a bunch of hypocrites he thinks they are. The Mayor, outraged at recent United Nations condemnation of Israel for annexing the Golana Heights, told a new conference it was time to add a new slogan on cowards and hypocrisy to the Isaiah Wall across from the United Nations. The wall, owned by the city, has engraved in granite a quote from the prophet Isaiah asking the nations of the world to “beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” Mayor Koch, the second Jewish Mayor in the city’s history, said he got the idea after receiving a call from the Israeli Ambassador (Mr Yehuda Blum), who the Mayor said wanted the wall taken down because United Nations actions against his

country made a mockery of the Hebrew prophet’s words. “I said I wouldn't remove it. but that it would be more appropriate to add some words about the hyprocisy of the cesspool across the street,” the Mayor said. The Mayor complained: “I have said it before — they censure Israel as a nation that is not peace-loving when a nation like the Soviet Union, which has killed more people than the Nazis, is a member.” “It is hypocrisy to single out Israel when' you have these murderous countries sitting in judgement." The Mayor said Isaiah was a prophet who denounced hypocrisy, injustice, and cowardice. Mr Koch added that he was searching for an appropriate quote on those subjects so that when delegates pass the wall, “they may have a change of heart." A United Nations spokesman was not impressed by the Mayor’s comments tha't the world body was a "cesspool.” "The secretarygeneral does not agree." the spokesman said.