Israel Decides to Shun Conference on Racism

Pro-Palestinian protestors marching through Durban during a UN conference on racism in 2001. (AP)

26 February 2008


RAMALLAH, West Bank, Fearing from being criticized over its attacks against Palestinians, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced that her state will boycott the United Nations Durban II conference on human rights and racism which is scheduled to take place in early 2009 at a still undecided venue in South Africa.

Israeli media sources quoted Livni while speaking at the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism in Jerusalem that participation in this conference legitimizes hate, extremism and anti-Semitism. Israel will not support this sort of behavior.”

Livni added that Israel would not consider the UN summit legitimate unless it receives proof that the venue will not serve once again as a platform for anti-Semitic or anti-Israel activity.

According to the sources, the decision followed an assessment by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and other Western governments, that it will be impossible to prevent the conference from turning into a festival of anti-Israeli attacks.

The forum, which is meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday and yesterday, focused on anti-Semitism worldwide, but added a specific focus on rampant anti-Semitic messages in Arab and Muslim media and religious institutions. The forum hosted 280 participants, including ministers and parliamentarians from 45 countries.

South Africa hosted the first Durban conference in the summer of 2001 under the auspices of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. It was titled “The World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, but most of the discussions revolved around Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

The United States and Israel responded by lowering the level of their diplomatic representation and eventually quit the conference, which culminated in a resolution equating Zionism and racism.

That conference also provided a framework for a global convention of nongovernmental organizations, which became a platform for delegitimizing Israel.

For the past few months, the media sources said, a coalition of Israeli and global Jewish organizations, together with government representatives, tried to prepare a joint policy for the follow-up conference.