Nadene Goldfoot
The Durban III UN meeting scheduled for October 11-22, 2021 has been a most exasperating and intolerant meeting, mostly anti-Semitic/anti-Israel ever held. Our President wants the USA to attend. The question is: Why?
"Durban III is an informal name for a high-level United Nations General Assembly meeting marking the 10th anniversary of the adoption of The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action that was held in New York City on 22 September 2011.
The theme of the conference was "Victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance: recognition, justice and development", and most of the member states of the UN attended.
The Durban conferences had previously been criticized by Western governments for allegedly promoting rather than combating racism. Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States all boycotted Durban III.
They charged that the Durban process has been used to promote racism, intolerance, antisemitism and Holocaust denial, and to erode freedom of speech and Israel's right to exist. The same countries, excluding Austria, Bulgaria, France and the United Kingdom, also previously boycotted the Durban Review Conference in 2009." (1)
Courtney R. Nemroff, the USA representative to the UN said on November 19,2020, "As in similar years, however, we regret that we cannot support this resolution – on such an important topic – because the text is not genuinely focused on countering racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Among our concerns about the resolution are its endorsements of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA), the outcome of the Durban review conference and its endorsement of overbroad restrictions on freedom of speech and expression. We reject any effort to advance the “full implementation” of the DDPA. We believe this resolution serves as a vehicle to prolong the divisions caused by the original Durban conference and its follow-up mechanisms, rather than providing a comprehensive and inclusive way forward for the international community to counter the scourge of racism and racial discrimination."
Yet, "In a stunning change of US policy, the Biden administration has issued a statement of support for the notoriously anti-semitic Durban Conference of 2001".(3) Even Obama was against this meeting. (5) It did take pressure from Israel on Obama, but he did see the problem, finally. What's going on?
The Durban UN meeting is named for Durban, South Africa. "It is the third most populous city in South Africa after Johannesburg and Cape Town and the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Durban III was a one-day meeting, and its theme was "victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance: recognition, justice and development." Speakers at the conference ranged from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Simon Aban Deng, a former slave and Sudanese human rights activist living in the United States.
On 25 December 2010, a day after the UN approved a resolution firmly linking the event to the 2001 Durban Conference, Israel's Foreign Ministry announced that the Jewish state intended to boycott the event. "The Durban Conference of 2001, with its anti-Semitic undertones and displays of hatred for Israel and the Jewish World, left us with scars that will not heal quickly. As long as the meeting is defined as part of the infamous 'Durban process', Israel will not participate", the statement said.
The Foreign Ministry also said that it expected the UN and its member states "to deal appropriately with the serious manifestations of racism throughout the world, and to reject attempts to once again divert world attention from this dangerous phenomenon by means of cheap politicization.
Israel is part of the international struggle against racism. The Jewish people was itself a victim of racism throughout history. Israel regrets that a resolution on an important subject- elimination of racism- has been diverted and politicized by the automatic majority at the UN, by linking it to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (2001) that many states would prefer to forget."(1)
"(March 25, 2021 / JNS) At the U.N. Human Rights Council last Friday, Americans learned something important about the Biden administration’s views on combating racism and xenophobia. Paradoxically, equality for the many is to be built on the inequality of the Jewish few. Abandoning 20 years of strong bipartisan concern about anti-Semitism, President Joe Biden’s State Department took the lead in embracing the U.N. hate-fest held in 2001 in Durban, South Africa."(4)
"Consistent with its rejection of every similar pro-Durban resolution since 2001, the United States voted against the plan to convene what is in effect a “Durban IV.” In fact, it voted against the entire U.N. budget for 2021 because it contained funding for the Durban reprise and the concomitant spread of anti-Semitism.
But times have evidently changed. In late February, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the current session of the U.N. Human Rights Council and announced that the Biden administration intends to join the council, notwithstanding the body’s entrenched anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias. "(4)
"Happily signing the Biden-Blinken initiative were the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Turkey and Zimbabwe."(4)
Resource:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durban_III
2. https://usun.usmission.gov/explanation-of-vote-on-a-resolution-on-the-durban-declaration-and-program-of-action/
3. https://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/elder-of-ziyon/biden-administration-embraces-antisemitic-conference/2021/05/03/
4. https://www.jns.org/opinion/why-is-biden-indifferent-to-a-un-celebration-of-anti-semitism/
5.https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rights-un/u-s-will-boycott-u-n-conference-on-racism-idUSTRE53H1M120090418
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