The following article is about the events at the ‘Durban anti racism’ confrence that took place a few years ago and is a preview of the events that will take place in Geneva next month at Durban II.
The only thing with which I disagree with the author is that it will be a do nothing inefective confrence. In fact it will do a lot and be very effective. We can see the effects Durban I had already with universities all over the western world holding ‘Israel Apartheid week’ which are becoming increasingly hostile and openly anti semitic while more and more pro terrorist. The connection to Durban is real in many ways but even if not direct, which it is, it legitimizes antisemitism and anti Israel ism-in a major global forum. Please find article below..
The travesty of Durban
Back in August, 2001, while working for a counterterrorism unit of Israel’s Secret Intelligence Service, I witnessed a hijacking in the making. Not the kind that involved a plane or a ship, but the systematic takeover of the UN-sanctioned World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. Later this year, the same hijackers will return to the scene of the crime.
As is now widely known, the original Durban conference devolved into an orgy of blatant anti-Semitism. The delegates to the conference didn’t even pretend to engage in a discussion about Israel’s right to secure territorial boundaries or promote a peaceful resolution of the Middle East conflict. Official representatives from Iran and Syria objected to the inclusion of anti-Semitism or the Holocaust in the conference’s agenda. There would be no sympathy for the Jewish plight nor any attempt to understand the historical context that gave rise to Israel’s existence in the first place.
A wide selection of hate literature vilifying Jews and Israel was disseminated during the Durban conference. Some of the “protest” material included Nazi-style caricatures of Jews with hooked noses. The only difference was that the updated hate propaganda showed Jews with Palestinian blood on their hands …as they sat on their piles of money. There were various banners and posters showing Israelis wearing Nazi uniforms and other regalia related to the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
Kaffiyeh-attired NGO representatives handed out hate literature entitled “Nazi-Israeli apartheid”; pro-Palestinian “peace activists” handed out copies of Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Jewish attendees were verbally abused and physically assaulted. There was a massive rally and parade with thousands of demonstrators bearing banners proclaiming disgusting slogans like “Hitler should have finished the job.”
The Durban conference was reduced to nothing more than a UNsanctioned platform for rogue nations to launch a direct assault on Jews and Israel’s right to exist. And now, the whole sorry spectacle is set to unfold again.
Durban 2 — also known as the Durban Review Conference — will be held next month at the UN headquarters in Geneva. With the organizing committee currently being chaired by Libya– with Iran as the vice-chair and Cuba, Pakistan and Russia as members — there can be no doubt that this conference will be as ignominious as its predecessor.
Like so much of what the United Nations does, Durban 2 will be a pointless talk shop. But events such as these, marked with the UN imprimatur as they are, do have symbolic value — and no doubt influenced the creation of such bigoted grassroots anti-Israel fiestas as this week’s “Israel Apartheid Week” on Canadian university campuses. NGOs and trade unions such as Sid Ryan’s CUPE Ontario, similarly, continue to demonize Israel with words seemingly ripped straight out of Durban propaganda.
Canada should be commended for having the moral courage to refuse to participate in Durban 2. And other Western powers would do well to follow Canada’s lead. A boycott is the best response we can offer to the thuggery and hypocrisy displayed by the rogue states, NGOs and trade unions that have hijacked the original Durban conference and its successor to promote Jew-hatred.
I left Durban I before it concluded, as I had to make my way to other duties in Southeast Asia. Days later we witnessed the attacks of Sept. 11. I couldn’t help but think then — as I do now — that the so-called enemies of racism and xenophobia sure have a strange way of displaying their message.
mr**********@gm***.com
I’m with Geert Wilders on this issue: an attack on Israel is an attack on us all. We should defend Israel to the hilt; she’s on the front line.
Chris Ryan in Israel
Well said. He’s right – more Europeans should think about the deprivations Israeli soldiers and their parents face whilst taking blows intended for all of us.