Effort Afoot To Expel Jewish Group From U.N.

UNITED NATIONS — A Jewish group that has maintained observer status at the United Nations since 1972 is on the verge of losing its credentials because its representative at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council attempted to criticize the Hamas charter during a session dedicated to denouncing purported Israeli violations in Gaza.

Bringing up a contrary argument "did not go over very well," the president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, Rabbi Uri Regev, told The New York Sun yesterday.

Representing the so-called Non-Aligned Movement, Cuba wrote to the General Assembly body that governs accreditation of non-governmental organizations, saying the Jewish group has "abused" the U.N.'s organs, and presenting the January 23 Geneva incident as proof. At a meeting of the NGO committee yesterday, a videotape of the incident was shown as evidence.

In it, as the World Union's representative, David Littman, attempts to cite the Hamas charter as a "genocidal" document, the president of the Human Rights Council, Doru Costea of Hungary, repeatedly warns that he has veered from the topic. The session was convened to discuss "human rights violations emanating from Israeli military incursions in the occupied Palestinian territory."

"There is a general malaise in the air," Mr. Littman finally said. "A feeling that something is rotten in the state of this council." After Cuban, Egyptian, Qatari, and other diplomats denounced the "offensive" comment yesterday, a British diplomat said Shakespeare is "one of our greatest writers," and therefore he could not "see this quote as insulting." The vote over expulsion of the group is expected today.