UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. General Assembly yesterday adopted the first U.N. resolution ever initiated by the state of Israel. The resolution, which had its detractors, designates January 27, the date the Nazi death camps were liberated, as an annual commemoration day of the Holocaust. It also urges member states to develop educational programs to study the genocide of the Jewish people in World War II.

Secretary-General Annan “looks forward” to establishing a program of outreach on the subject of “the Holocaust and the United Nations” and to mobilize civil society for Holocaust remembrance and education, as per the resolution, his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Co-sponsored by 104 countries, the resolution was affirmed by consensus without a vote. It nevertheless was criticized by some speakers. Ambassador Imeria Nunez de Odreman, of Venezuela, said, while speaking of the horrors of “so-called” World War II, that there were “other holocausts that occurred during that conflict or [were] uncovered later on,” including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. America, she said, also conducted “systematic genocide” against the peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Egypt’s ambassador to the United Nations, Maged Abdelaziz, said that he had “reservations” about the educational programming mentioned in the resolution and on Mr. Annan’s proposed role. Crimes against Christian and Muslims in Kosovo, Srebrenica, and elsewhere, were not similarly recognized and remembered, he said. “Why should there be a remembrance day for the Jews and not for Christians and Muslims?” he said. “No one has the monopoly on suffering.” Malaysia and Indonesia also said the resolution’s scope should be widened.