Hey Kofi – How About A Little More Than Just Lip Service concerning Israel.

March 30, 2005

His Excellency Kofi Annan

Secretary-General

United Nations

UN Headquarters

First Avenue at 46th Street

New York, NY 10017

Your Excellency;

I am writing to you in my capacity as the Critic on Foreign Affairs of the Official Opposition in the House of Commons, Canada.

I have noted, as have many of my constituents, your remarks at the dinner hosted by the President of Israel in Jerusalem, March 15. I commend you for your candor in recalling that so much of the UN’s mission “came as a direct response to the horrors of Nazism and the Holocaust.” We are all encouraged by your judgment that this is “a moment for renewed hope for progress in the search for peace in the Middle East.”

Above all, I was impressed by your candor about the fact that Israel still is denied full and equal participation in the work of the United Nations Organization and I salute your stated personal commitment to “do whatever I can to encourage corresponding groups in Geneva and Vienna” to follow through on the precedent established by Israel’s admission to the West European and Others Group in the General Assembly.

I intend to press my Party to make this matter of “normalization” of Israel’s standing in the United Nations a major priority item in our formulations of policy and I will be urging the Government of Canada to follow suit. In doing so, I intend to make widely known your own candid description of the present situation with regard to Israel’s standing within the world community and your bold commitment to redressing remaining anomalies.

Yours sincerely,

Stockwell Day, M.P.

Okanagan-Coquihalla’

Official Opposition Foreign Affairs Critic

Copies to:

Hon. Pierre Pettigrew

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada

His Excellency Alan Baker

Ambassador of Israel to Canada