French delegates walk out on Ahmadinejad at Geneva

I first heard about this during this morning’s conference call with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper:

Delegates walk out on Ahmadinejad at Geneva. First a guy in a clown suit threw a red nose at Ahmadinejad, and after he was removed from the premises, Ahmadinejad continued with his speech.

Then came the good part:

At this point the Iranian president’s speech moved to the subject of Israel and the Palestninians.

“As was the case after World War II, armies occupied other territories and people were transferred from territories. In reality, under the pretext of compensating for the evil done in the name of xenophobia, they in fact set up the most violent xenophobes, in Palestine.”

“The Security Council made it possible for that illegitimate government to be set up. For 60 years, this government was supported by the world. Many Western countries say they are fighting racism; but in fact support it with occupation, bombings and crimes committed in Gaza. These countries support the criminals,” Ahmadinejad said.

“Governments must be encouraged and supported in their fights at eradictating this barbaric racism. Efforts must be made to put an end to Zionism,” he said.

As he spoke, France walked out of the room in protest. Some twenty delegates were seen leaving the room.

The French are showing great gumption recently.

During the conference call, PM Harper was asked about the incident. PM Harper stated that he didn’t know about it and that he doesn’t like anything that smacks of violence towards a speaker but to the extent the reaction demonstrated a reaction to Ahmadinejad’s position, he thinks it’s OK: “Anything that shows there’s strong opposition to that, is a positive thing.”

UPDATE
Among those who walked out on A-jad were envoys from the UK and Finland, and

Later, other protesters shouted down from the balcony as the Iranian president carried on his address.