Durban's recriminations

Editorial

Some of the Canadian delegates to the debacle at Durban are acknowledging with red faces that they may have behaved inappropriately in issues dealing with Jews and Israel.

The Vancouver Sun's tenacious Parliament Hill reporter Peter O'Neil had to use the Access to Information Act to gain access to reports written by government-funded delegates to last year's United Nations conference on racism. The reports were written by representatives of non-governmental organizations, each of whom was provided with $7,000 to go to South Africa to attend what turned into a racist, anti-Semitic carnival. Among the various anti-Israel demonstrations in Durban were placards with such comments as "Hitler should have finished the job" and "Death to Jews."

Canadian Jewish leaders who attended the conference decried the action (or inaction) of their compatriots. The reports written by some delegates show the insensitivity that some showed to the complexities of the Middle East situation.
According to O'Neil, one delegate - the executive director of the Prince Edward Island Multiculturalism Council - reported that "Israel should be tried for crimes against the Palestinians [sic] people." Confronted by O'Neil, she said she was trying to present an objective summary of the discussions at the conference.

The representative of the National Organization of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women applauded the demonstrations that allowed people to bring "public attention to the Palestinian issues and calling for an end to injustice, racism and apartheid." When O'Neil called her on it, she said she had witnessed the demonstration from behind and did not see any anti-Semitic placards.
In his news story in the Sun Jan. 5, O'Neil noted that there is a growing realization among Canadian delegates that their behavior should have been better. There seems to be a consensus that everyone was so wrapped up in the issues that were personally important to them that they overlooked the horrendous activities swirling around them.

Nevertheless, if there is a silver lining to this chapter in our national history, it is that we have, belatedly and with thanks to the persistence of this Sun reporter, had to analyze the actions of our delegates - and they themselves have been confronted with the effects of their actions.

It is also worth noting that Jewish Canadian delegates did not sit idly when they returned from Durban, but pounded repeatedly on the fact that they had been abandoned and betrayed by their fellow citizens.

Keith Landy, president of Canadian Jewish Congress, has refused to let the issue die and the reconsideration that seems to be taking place in the larger community now is, in large part, a result of his fortitude and that of David Matas, the B'nai Brith Canada representative.

This is not the end of the story. There will probably be more talk of this in the general community now that it has been brought to light. The lessons we will take from the experience will help determine how our government-funded representatives behave when abroad, how the federal government responds to incidents like these and how Jewish communal agencies mobilize in the face of these threats.

It also provides a lesson - that there is a strain of anti-Semitism just below the surface internationally and domestically - that we must never forget.

^TOP