Category Archives: Durban I and II
E.U. considers boycott of Durban II
I have wondered why the Czech Republic has not yet stated it’s almost certain condemnation of the Jew hate-fest dubbed Durban II as the Czech’s so far have been the world leader for reason on all fronts for the past few years. Now I know. They have been waiting to get the whole EU on board. Bless you Vaclav you never let me down.
From Reuters:
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The EU threatened on Monday to withdraw from a U.N. conference on racism next month unless its final declaration is changed, joining a number of countries concerned the meeting could become an anti-Semitic forum.
Israel and Canada have already withdrawn from the April 20-24 World Conference Against Racism in Geneva amid fears Arab nations will use it against Israel. The United States and Australia have said they are considering doing the same.
“The main voices were very skeptical about the direction of the papers prepared there,” Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said after EU foreign ministers discussed the Geneva meeting on Monday.
“Probably we will send now from the EU a suggestion of ours and if the conference papers are in line with that, we will stay, otherwise there is a strong call to withdraw,” said Schwarzenberg, who chaired the talks.
“Some of the wording (in the conference’s draft documents) is considered to be anti-Semitic,” one EU diplomat said.
The bloc was also concerned about the mention of defamation against religion, he said. “The EU thinks this has nothing to do with human rights,” the diplomat told Reuters.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was concerned the conference “might be abused for one sided statements on the Middle East conflict.”
“I plead that we would cancel our participation unless there is in the next few days a change in the preparation,” he told reporters in Brussels.
The United States has also said it will not attend the conference unless the wording of the final declaration is altered radically. Israel is calling for a boycott of the event.
The issues of freedom of speech and anti-Semitism have been set by Western countries, including the United States, as among their “red lines” for participation in the gathering, dubbed Durban II.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who will preside over the conference, has sought to reassure doubters, arguing fears of anti-Semitic outbursts are unfounded.
But diplomats have said that memories of street marches targeting Jews in general at the first U.N. racism conference in Durban in 2001 remain strong and fears of a repeat have grown after protests in Europe over Israel’s war against Palestinian militants in Gaza.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Ilona Wissenbach; Writing by Ingrid Melander)
Somehow this French speaker managed to get a word in at the UN
Somehow I don’t think it will matter. Even if the OIC does make some conciliatory noise about it the UN thanks to the OIC is setting up for Durban II in a matter of weeks. At this point I don’t really give a damn what the UN has to say. The organization is rotten to the core and nations such as Canada the US and GB should abandon it as a farce to it’s own stated principles. The video is worth seeing anyway.
Once again, the Czech republic shines the light of reason
Europe Concerned About Freedom of Speech – Czech EU Presidency
Europe concerned about freedom of speech – Czech EU presidency
published: 04.03.2009, 20:04 | updated: 04.03.2009 20:15:29
?R a Evropa se na konferenci o rasismu obávají o svobodu slova
Geneva – The Czech Republic, as the EU presiding country, and other European countries today expressed fears that the freedom of speech would be at risk if Islamic countries pushed for a ban on “defamation of religion” at the conference on racism in April, Reuters has reported.
Geneva – The Czech Republic, as the EU presiding country, and other European
countries today expressed fears that the freedom of speech would be at risk if
Islamic countries pushed for a ban on “defamation of religion” at the
conference on racism in April, Reuters has reported.
Representatives of the EU countries also warned in their speeches to the U.N.’s
Human Rights Council today that they could not accept any pillorying of Israel
as “racist” and any promotion of anti-Semitism at the April conference in
Geneva.
Reuters reported that the same opinions were expressed in the U.N. Human Rights
Council this week by the delegations of the Czech Republic, holding the EU
presidency in the first half of 2009, Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands,
Poland and Switzerland.
“The freedom of expression must be the cornerstone of our fight against
racism,” Reuters quotes Sweden’s delegate Frank Belfrage as saying in the U.N.
The draft declaration for the Geneva conference has also been criticised by
Israel, which, along with Canada previously decided to boycott the event. The
United States and France are considering this step.
The World Conference Against Racism, also called Durban II, will be held at the
UN headquarters in Geneva on April 20-24, as the continuation of the conference
in Durban, South Africa, in
2001.
Kenney praises U.S. for Durban II boycott
By SHERI SHEFA, Staff Reporter
Thursday, 05 March 2009
Now that the United States has followed Canada and Israel’s lead in boycotting the upcoming Durban II world anti-racism conference over concerns about anti-Semitism, Canada’s citizenship, immigration and multicultural minister, Jason Kenney, said he hopes other countries will do the same.
“I would like to believe that we had some positive impact, and certainly the recent decision of the Obama administration, I am confident, will be followed by other European allies,” Kenney told The CJN on Sunday in Toronto, referring to the followup conference to the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism, known as Durban II.
The 2001 human rights meeting in Durban, South Africa, singled Israel out for criticism and compared Zionism to racism. Israel and the United States walked out.
Kenney – who was meeting with representatives from Jewish groups, including Canadian Jewish Congress and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, to brief them on last month’s inaugural conference in London of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism – said he hopes to deepen his close relationship with the Jewish community.
“Canada under the Harper government takes a zero tolerance approach to anti-Semitism, both domestically and internationally, and we understand the direct connection between Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism,” Kenney said.
He added that when he attended the Feb. 17 London conference, the Obama administration had not yet opted to pull out of the Durban II conference, set to take place in Geneva next month.
The CJC released a statement that applauded last week’s decision by the United States to join Canada and Israel in refusing to participate in the United Nations Durban Review Conference.
“In the preparatory conferences for Durban II, it has already become clear that Israel would be singled out among all the nations of the world for condemnation… Durban II has already become nothing more than a venue for the most pernicious and vile anti-Semitism,” CJC co-president Rabbi Reuven Bulka said.
Congress CEO Bernie Farber added that the refusal of democratic countries such as Canada, Israel and the United States to take part sends a message of tolerance and hope to the international community.
“We now call on all other democratic countries to be true to their pluralistic values. They should follow Canada’s lead, together with Israel and the United States, in dissociating from the hatefest that Durban II has already become,” Farber said.
Kenney told The CJN that anti-Semitism in Canada is fuelled by “anti-Zionist rhetoric” and has become “almost epidemic in Canada.”
But he said he hopes that the London conference last month will push other members of the international community to actively combat anti-Semitism, starting with a boycott of the Durban II conference.
Kenney said that Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has said that “Italy is ready to withdraw, but it wasn’t announcing that it was doing so.”
He added that Britain is also close to making the decision now that the United States has pulled out.
But the main message Kenney said he wanted to present to the Canadian Jewish community was that his government recognizes that “the new anti-Semitism – that is to say, anti-Semitism taking on the form of anti-Zionism, this notion that Israel is an abomination, that the Jewish people alone have no right to a homeland and that Israel must be destroyed – is [manifesting itself] even here in Canada.”
He said that events such as Israeli Apartheid Week, happening this week on campuses worldwide, are efforts to scapegoat and delegitimize the Jewish state.
“[Israel] is not a perfect country, and it is entirely fair, as I said in London, to disagree with particular policies of the Israeli government, but this anti-Zionism is much more profound than that,” Kenney said.
“It questions, essentially, the right of Israel to exist as a democratic Jewish state, and for the government of [Prime Minister] Stephen Harper, that is a totally outrageous and unacceptable position.”
Office of the Hon. Jason Kenney, PC, MP / Bureau du député
Calgary Southeast / Calgary-sud-est
Office of the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism/
Cabinet du Ministre de la Citoyenneté, de l’immigration et du Multiculturalisme
325 East Block / Édifice de l’Est, Pièce 325
House of Commons / Chambre des communes Ottawa ON K1A 0A6
Phone / Tél. : 613-992-2235
Fax / Téléc. : 613-992-1920
www.jasonkenney.com
National post on Durban
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.
Durban lite: Israel apartheid week
March 1 through to 8, 2009, is Israel Apartheid Week, the fifth annual event of it’s kind organized to bring awareness to the plight of Arabs and Muslims world wide, persecuted at the hands of the great Zionist entity, Israel. Over forty universities will hold seminars, dialogues and discussions inviting guest speakers to illuminate students of the ongoing injustice and discriminatory practices of Israel. Sounds fine. Nice. Informative.
Many would presume this event as benign and nothing but a registered, legitimate forum to counter severe bias and discrimination. What an opportunity for a young thinking man or woman to oppose such terrific injustice and perpetual hardship and to flex their intillectual bicepts in the world of geo-politics. It is easy to latch onto a cause, any cause, especially if it is distant enough to cushion any real responsibility. It is even easier when university administrators and student bodies lie in absolute apathy, paving the road for extremist ideology to flourish. And easier still when young bloods are culled to swallow extremist rhetoric by foreign influenced agencies.
Israel Apartheid Week is anything but benign. Like the Durban conferences, which both Canada and the United States have seen fit to abandon realizing it to be THE festival of hatred, IAW seeks to annually undermine Israel at every opportunity, de-legitimize it’s right to defend itself at the hands of terrorist assault and aggression and seeks to deny Islam’s participation as a political, religious and warring aggressor. While the Durban conferences denouce Jews as a sub-human group worthy of abuse and seeks to condemn open criticism of religion, Israel Apartheid Week seems a spawned copy of the anti-Semitic and anti free expression propaganda machine, seduced into action by Canadian Arab and Muslim organizations loudmouthing on behalf of their instructors abroad. In 2008 school children were invited by both the CAF and the CIC to write essays for a cash prize on the ‘ethnic cleansing of Palestine’ as part of the celebration of Canadian Islamic History Month, held every October. Coincidence perhaps?
National Post columnist Craig Offman writes an article detailing the heightened tensions between Arab/Muslim and Jewish students on Canadian university campuses. Jewish students are warned of increasing threats of violence and police probes have been launched into instances of campus racism. It would seem to me that Canadian universities have become a flourishing platform which mirrors a broader based coalition of anti-Semitic and Islamist nations intent upon importing radicalism, excusing terror and promoting intolerance.
I would wonder what the cushioned, left world reaction would be to the hosting of say, an annual Islamic Terrorism Week?
Grace
Melanie Phillips writes on Durban II
At least we can blame the Jews for one thing. Most of them voted for Obama. Here is Melanie’s critical analysis of the Durban conference. I do not know if she wrote and published this before the USA pulled out or if she knows yet. But her article has a lot of calid points about the damage done merely by examining the possibility of going. Fortunately I believe there is still time for the Czech’s and the UK to pull out of Durban. In any case here is the article:
February 27, 2009
Silent in the face of antisemitism
National Review Online, 27 February 2009
In a letter to the Jerusalem Post, David Harris, director of the American Jewish Committee [AJC], has defended his organization’s decision to participate in the preparatory meeting for Durban II — the follow-up to the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which took place in Durban, South Africa.
Two weeks ago, AJC senior official Felice Gaer was part of the delegation America sent to try to improve the draft of the declaration, the final version of which will ultimately be approved at Durban II itself. The U.S. vowed that if its attempts to improve the draft failed, it would not participate in the final conference.
Israel and the United States walked out of the 2001 conference in protest against the anti-Semitism on display there. Israel and Canada have already announced that they do not intend to participate in the Durban II conference in Geneva this April, fearing a re-run. The Jerusalem Post’s Caroline Glick raised similar concerns, which is what compelled Harris to respond.
Harris wrote that although “under the present circumstances” the United States should not attend the April conference, “this leaves two options: to throw up our hands, or work to change those circumstances.”
The AJC, he explains, believed it should “work with our government to assess whether Durban is beyond salvaging. . . . If Durban can be fixed, everybody wins — not least, the global struggle against racism, to which AJC has been committed for more than a century. If it can’t, we will absolutely seek to hold the administration to its promise to withdraw.”
This is, to put it mildly, a serious misjudgment. Durban II is intrinsically a disgrace, and no civilized country should have anything to do with it. Since it is being run by the U.N. Human Rights Council — whose Durban Preparatory Committee is chaired by Libya, with Iran and Cuba as vice-chairs — the idea that such a meeting can assist in “the global struggle against racism” is absurd.
US pulls out of Durban II
Some really good news. The Obama administration has decided to boycott Durban II
U.S. pulling out of ‘Durban II’ conference
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Obama administration has decided to boycott the so-called Durban II conference out of concerns for anti-Semitism.
Multiple sources on a conference call with the White House on Friday told JTA that the Obama administration had opted not to attend any further preparatory meetings ahead of the planned U.N. conference against racism in Geneva in April.
The conference reprises the 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa that devolved into an anti-Jewish free-for-all. Canada and Israel have opted not to attend the conference, and some U.S. Jewish groups had been pressing the United States to do the same.
Preparations for a draft document so far have seen Iran leading a coterie of nations blocking inclusion of anything that might guarantee Jewish protections – including mention of the Holocaust – while inserting draconian language guarding Islam against “insult.”
The State Department sent a delegation, including a senior staffer from the American Jewish Committee, to this month’s preparatory talks. The delegation’s conclusions were that the anti-Israel and anti-Western tendencies were too deeply entrenched to excise.
Now that the United States is withdrawing from the conference, European nations are expected to follow.
Speaking for the White House on Friday’s call were Samantha Power and James Warlick, who handle international organizations for, respectively, the national security council and the State Department; and Jennifer Simon, an adviser to Susan Rice, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations.
Links for Feb 16 2009
First, some good news. As readers here may know, we have had a continuing thread questioning the value of the Canadian support of the current government in Afghanistan. There have been so many incidents of Islamic sharia implemented under the new more ‘liberal’ government that one wonders if we aren’t just replacing one theocratic brutal regime with ‘Taliban Lite’. Here is a photo shoot and article about a peace march, for once actually wishing for peace as opposed to being for war but on the other side, from of all places, Toronto. Pashtun’s, one of the indigenous tribes of Pakistan and Afghanistan and actually one of the tribes for which the anagram name of Pakistan was forged, are trying to raise awareness of how the Taliban is in fact destroying all attempts to build civilization by the Pashtun, destroying all schools for girls and you can bet changing the curriculum for boys to limit it to Quran, Islamic studies and basic rocketry. This is encouraging. Where is the media? same place as always. Out for a drink and looking through their Rolodex for someone at the CIC or Canadian Arab federation to tell them what they are allowed to print. From Atlas Shrugs. The article itself seems a little hastily written but the facts are solid. The Swat Valley in Pakistan is now a Taliban stronghold so much so that the Taliban, now a solid partner of Al Queda is successfully making demands on Pakistan proper to implement sharia. At least this article makes an excellent counter position to ours at Vlad as to why we should be in Afghanistan. If for nothing else, for the Pashtun.
Im sorry to have to post this one. Obama’s administration is taking the US into Durban II, the anti western and anti Semitic hate fest this one based on the preparatory statements made, seem to show it as being far more virulent than Durban I was. Here is an article which shows the best case scenario. Naivete on the part of the Obama admin. I hope Anne Bayefsky, the author of this article is correct and it is nothing more insidious or opportunistic than merely a deluded sense of what he can accomplish for western liberal democracy by US attendance. Thanks to Fred at Gayandright for sending me this. Sample below:
In a major foreign-policy decision taken over the weekend, President Obama has decided to legitimize the United Nations’s “anti-racism” forum known as Durban II. State Department officials announced in a press release buried on Saturday, that starting today the United States will attend for the first time the preparatory meetings of this controversial U.N. conference. The “Durban Review Conference,” scheduled for April in Geneva, is the progenitor of the anti-semitic hatefest that took place in South Africa in early September 2001.
The searing images of the demonization of America and Jews on the U.N.’s global stage, and the terrorism in New York 72 hours later, should have made joining this revived forum for U.N.-driven hate inconceivable. But President Obama seems intent on learning the lessons of history — and the relationship between hatemongering and violence — the hard way.
Here is a depressing article but well backed up with facts and stats about the use of rape of women by Islamists as a weapon of jihad. Te clip below deals with the issue in Australia but goes into detail about how rape was a central tool of Islamics in India along with links to chapter and verse of hadith explaining the ‘logic’ behind it.
The Sydney gang rapes, committed by groups of Muslim men upon Australian women, are still fresh in memory. The men taunted the women while raping them, saying that the women “deserved it” because they were not covered and staying at home as Islam commands women to do.
Now this phenomenon, already so pronounced with small muslim populations (The 2001 census showed the UK had 1.5 million muslims), evolves into something even more sinister as the muslim population rises. Women are kidnapped (they simply vanish in the vast network of “Islamic centers”), used to commit terrorist acts, and so on. Let us look at some such incidents in India in the past few months. First, a bit of historical and theological background.
The very first accounts of the muslim invasions of India, by Mohammed Bin Qasim in 712AD, talk in some detail about the women captured and sexually enslaved. Indeed, it is described as one of the major accomplishments of the subjugation of the Hindus…
Do go to the link to read the rest it’s crucial that we in the west examine India for a template of what is occurring in western lands now. The article ends with this caveat: “Remember, women are always Islam’s first victims.” I am not personally sure if they are the first, but they are certainly the most numerous.
Below, please find a video discussion from FOX news with Robert Spencer, Frank Gaffney, Tarek Fatah and Nonie Darwish Discussing stealth jihad and Islamic Radicals in the United States.