This cartoon by Steve Greenberg sums it all up rather nicely.
Archive for the 'Durban' Category
It’s a farce, it’s a shambles and it’s a disgrace. At the UN’s anti-racism parley, the world’s leading Holocaust denier stood up and launched a vicious stream of lies against Israel, Zionism and the Jewish people.
Now Germany’s withdrawn from the Durban Review Conference. “This decision was not easy,” said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (pictured). “As in Durban in 2001, this conference could be abused by others as a platform for their interests. We cannot accept that.” Meanwhile, strident editorials in both the Telegraph and the Times demanding a British pullout.
Cards, dominoes, whatever gaming analogy you choose - it’s collapsing. After the US decision that the UN’s Durban Review Conference was beyond redemption, The Netherlands and Australia have now followed suit.
“It now seems certain these remaining concerns will not be addressed in the document to be adopted by the conference next week. Therefore, with regret, the United States will not join the review conference,” said State Department spokesman Robert Wood. More here.
An anti-racism parley with a Holocaust denier as keynote speaker. Welcome to the UN’s Durban Review Conference. Apparently, the Swiss President might be rolling out the red carpet.
This guest post by Felice Gaer, executive director of the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, was published by JTA. Gaer was a member of the official U.S. delegation at the Durban review negotiations in Geneva in February.
In all the deliberations over the U.N.-sponsored Durban Review Conference on Racism, the one abiding concern has been that the infamous first conference in Durban, South Africa, in August 2001, which degenerated into a cacophony of Israel baiting and outright antisemitism, will be repeated next month in Geneva.
Professor Gerald Steinberg has written an excellent piece on the Durban Review conference. While there are many commentators who argue vociferously that any contact with the review process is intrinsically toxic, Steinberg counters that we must acknowledge the “substantial and almost unique” diplomatic victory in securing the latest changes to the draft document, even as he concludes that the case for staying away trumps the case for staying in.
I have never pictured AJC, the organization which sponsors Z Word, and where I proudly work, as being driven by a particularly American Jewish “psychopathology;” nor have I ever been aware that AJC actively colludes with those who seek to wipe Israel out of existence; nor did I know that my colleagues would sit happily in the same room as those who would deny the Holocaust in which six million Jews, including members of my own family, were exterminated.
AJC, which publishes Z Word, has started a new blog featuring news, views and commentary as the Durban Review Conference in Geneva approaches. It’s called Durban II Countdown and is a must-read in the coming weeks.
This is a guest post by Manny Waks and Geoffrey Winn
Australia should follow the United States and Canadian lead in withdrawing from the dubiously named United Nations Durban II “anti-racism” conference to be held in April in Geneva.
In the wake of the US decision to disengage from the UN conference in Geneva which insists on billing itself as a pow-wow against “racism,” other countries are beginning to follow suit.
UPDATE: Here, via David Hirsh at Engage, is a song by the rather wonderful Lily Allen which could become the anthem of all of us with Durban doubts.
The BBC says that one of the reasons the US is likely to stay away from the Durban review conference is because the draft of its final document “criticizes Israel.”
Unless radical changes are made, the US won’t be attending the Durban Review Conference in April. Who’ll be next to pull out?
With Canada and Israel now having formally withdrawn from the UN’s 2009 Durban II conference, serious questions are emerging over the attendance of other democratic states.
