ASSOCIATED PRESS:
THE UNITED Nations has launched an investigation into incidents of anti-Semitism in its security service, according to a letter Wednesday to all security staff.
The letter follows the reprimand of a security guard, who is reported to be a Caribbean national, for drawing swastikas on a log sheet knowing a guard from Israel would almost certainly see them. The guard also made Nazi-like salutes to his Israeli
colleague.
PANEL ESTABLISHED
The letter from Diana Russler, the deputy to U.N. security chief David Veness, said the Department of Safety and Security and the Office of Human Resources Management have jointly established a panel to investigate "recent allegations of anti-Semitic incidents in the Security and Safety Service ... and establish the facts."
Israel's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Daniel Carmon said last month, when asked about the swastikas and Nazi salutes, that "those signs of hatred and terror are things of the past and they cannot happen in 2006".
But he said the act of one security guard could not be compared to the larger issue of anti-Semitism at the United Nations.
