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September 21, 2001
Opinion - CJC attacks Durban conference
UN cannot stop racism (Opinion)
CJC president lambastes the conference in Durban.
KEITH LANDY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
The United Nations World Conference Against Racism, earlier this
month in Durban, South Africa, showed both the prevalence of racism
worldwide and the utter inability of this compromised and corrupted
forum to combat it.
The United Nations is a body of states with one vote for each state.
When states have something in common, such as religion or ethnic
origin, they can band together for common purposes and form very
effective voting blocs.
There were some 168 member states attending the conference. In
the UN, more than 20 are in the Arab League, 55 in the Organization
of Islamic States and about 120 are "non-aligned" states,
most of which support the Arab League in its approach. Israel is
the only Jewish state and is the UN sanctioned expression of the
self-determination of the Jewish people. In any conflict involving
Arab states, it is in an automatic minority in this forum.
The racism conference was hi-jacked by those states and groups
that wished to promote an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish agenda. They
were not there to fight global racism but simply to have Israel
condemned above all other nations on earth.
What is astonishing is that the United Nations and the international
community allowed them to get away with it.
First, Iran prevented official Jewish and other minority delegates
from participating in the Asian regional preparatory conference
held in Tehran, so that no opposing views were heard or registered.
Second, the preparatory conference report contained odious anti-Jewish
references minimizing the Holocaust and diluting the meaning of
anti-Semitism, as well as extremely inflammatory language attacking
Israel, despite agreements that no preparatory conference report
would condemn specific states.
Third, Mary Robinson, UN high commissioner on human rights, participated
in the preparatory conference and sanctioned its report, even after
she knew what it contained.
Fourth, the Arab League threatened to withdraw if the language
was changed or eliminated. Other countries and NGOs with a large
stake in other issues for the world conference were reluctant to
see their work undermined just over one issue, so they seldom challenged
the Arab preoccupation with Israel.
Jewish groups were vilified and shouted down; their questions were
ruled out of order or they were not allowed to speak; the section
submitted by the commission on anti-Semitism was removed from the
final document so that only the Jews at the conference were given
no voice. This was the final act which pushed the Jewish caucus
to walk out.
Openly anti-Jewish propaganda was distributed at the race conference
site, including the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and anti-Semitic
T-shirts and cartoon caricatures. It was these caricatures that
prompted Robinson to express her horror and disgust at the Jew-hatred
being openly promulgated at the conference. Major NGOs have refused
to subscribe to the final NGO declaration. The anti-Jewish language
of the final NGO forum was so extreme that Robinson refused to recommend
it for consideration by states at the formal UN World Conference,
thus throwing all the other work in the document into question.
The United States and Israel walked out of the conference when
it was obvious such language had a serious chance to be included
in the final declaration. Delegates had already distinguished themselves
by promoting hatred against Jews. The Iranian delegate claimed anti-Semitism
did not exist because it was not a contemporary form of racism;
the Syrian delegate, the representative of a country now almost
certain to be on the Security Council, claimed that the Holocaust
was a Jewish lie. Yasser Arafat claimed Israel was based on a "supremacist"
mentality, a sly reference to anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews,
rightly condemned by Canada's Secretary of State Hedy Fry.
To show their true commitment to combat racism, Arab delegates
were apparently ready to remove references to Israel only if references
to anti Semitism and the Holocaust were also removed. Apparently
Palestinian rights are negotiable as long as the Jews are given
a blow.
The tortured final document, though less extreme, is still dangerous
to peace in the Middle East, an issue that had no place at this
forum. It's difficult to see how this debased conference has done
anything but divide people who otherwise work together to combat
racism.
Keith Landy is national president of the Canadian Jewish
Congress and was a delegate to the Durban NGO forum.
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