Presidential Medal of Freedom Honoree Draws Criticism from Jewish Groups

ABC News' Jake Tapper and Matthew Larotonda report: President Obama’s decision to honor Mary Robinson, Ireland’s first female president and the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is drawing criticism from some in the Jewish community.

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, today issued a statement saying that Robinson has “anti-Israel bias” and calling the decision to bestow America’s highest civilian honor upon Robinson as an agent of change “ill-advised.”

“While Mary Robinson may have accomplishments to her credit, she also, unfortunately, has an animus towards Israel as evidenced by her tenure” at the UN where, “rather than be constructive and act objectively, she became its lead cheerleader by adopting the Palestinian narrative.”

Foxman said that Robinson “issued distorted and detrimental reports on the conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and blamed Israel for the outbreak of Palestinian violence – the Second Intifada. As the convener of the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, she allowed the process to be hijacked to promote the delegitimizing of Israel and pronouncements of hateful anti-Jewish canards, such as ‘Zionism is racism.’ She failed miserably in her leadership role, opting to join the anti-Israel forces rather than temper them.”

The 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, was widely criticized in the US for devolving into a forum where anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiments were condoned alongside calls for an end to racism and discrimination against other ethnic groups. The US and Israel withdrew from the conference to protest continued Arab efforts to accuse Israel of propagating racist policies. In the end, much of the offending language was removed Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, though not all of it.

“The compromise, for which South Africa claimed authorship, removed some of the anti-Israeli language, but contained Mary Robinson’s longed-for language that recognized the ‘plight of the Palestinian people under occupation’— language that clearly would have been unsatisfactory to the United States,” wrote Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., in the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs in Spring 2002. “Not only does the final document single out one regional conflict for discussion, it does so in a biased way: the suffering of the Palestinian people is highlighted, but there is no discussion of the Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens.”

When the Obama administration boycotted the 2009 Durban Review Conference in April, it did so because the 2001 document "singles out one particular conflict and prejudges key issues that can only be resolved in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians."

Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told ABC News that he agreed with Foxman’s assessment of Robinson’s past behavior but added that his organization had yet to decide whether it would formally protest Robinson being honored by the President.

“Mary Robinson has dedicated her career to human rights and working to improve an imperfect world,” said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor. “As with any public figure, we don’t necessarily agree with every statement she has ever made, but it's clear that she has been an agent of change and a fighter for good.”

The White House named Robinson as one of 16 pending Medal of Freedom recipients because she “continues to bring attention to international issues as Honorary President of Oxfam International, and Chairs the Board of Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI Alliance). Since 2002 she has been President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, based in New York, which is an organization she founded to make human rights the compass which charts a course for globalization that is fair, just and benefits all.”

Robinson today was quoted in an Irish newspaper, the Independent, saying: “There's a lot of bullying by certain elements of the Jewish community. They bully people who try to address the severe situation in Gaza and the West Bank. Archbishop Desmond Tutu gets the same criticism."

Robinson told RTE Radio One that allegations that she condoned anti-Semitic behavior at the Durban World Conference Against Racism in 2001 are “totally without foundation but when stuff is out on the internet, I'm not quite sure what you can do.” More

Jewish Groups Slam Obama's Honoring Anti-Israel Leaders