The UN's Durban Israeli Hatefest

"Canada remains committed, at home and abroad, including at the United Nations, to advancing human rights, inclusion and combating anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and systemic racism in all its forms."

"Canada opposes initiatives at the United Nations and in other multilateral forums that unfairly single out and target Israel for criticism."

Grantly Franklin, Foreign Affairs Canada

"By publicly stating it will not participate in Durban IV, Canada is making it clear that it stands against the ugly anti-Semitism and anti-Israel hate the conference is known for."

"We commend Canada for its principled position and for joining other countries, including the United States and Australia, in boycotting the upcoming conference."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, director of policy, Wiesenthal Center

"The United States stands with Israel and has always shared its concerns over the Durban processes' anti-Israel sentiment, used as a forum for anti-Semitism and freedom of expression issues."

U.S. State Department

Anti-Israel demonstrators at the World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001

(photo credit: MIKE HUTCHINGS / REUTERS)

 

At the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa for the stated purpose of setting out policy against global hatred, Israel  and Jews worldwide looked on as the conference became a virtual weapon against both Jews and Israel, the Jewish state. What the world body lent itself to was a paroxysm of racist hatred directed at one of its member-states, and looked on with approval, as Jew-haters expressed their venomous racism at a conference whose ostensible purpose was to combat it.

The carnival of anti-Semitic displays that ensued saw copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the infamous Russian hate-tract of  turn-of-the-20th-Century slander of Jews being sold on the conference ground,s along with leaflets distributed proclaiming that "Hitler should have finished the job". Chants of "Zionism is racism, Israel is apartheid", rang out. Threats of violence were issued toward the Jewish Centre in Durban, forcing it to close down.

The enthusiastically endorsed declaration of Zionism equating with racism painted the Palestinians as victims of racism with Israel the world's leading hate-monger of racial intolerance. Out of the general acceptance of the declaration rose a putrid new campaign of anti-Semitism that saw "Israeli Apartheid 

Week" become an annual hate-fest feature at universities around the world, promoting hatred against Jews, where Jewish university students were victimized and penalized for being Jews.

 

Protesters march through the streets in Durban, South Africa, during an August 2001 conference on racism.  photo/ap/obed zilw

 

Out of a refreshed vision of Jews as oppressors was born the BDS movement to penalize Israel for 'occupying' 'Palestinian land'. In 2009 at a conference reiteration, then-president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- whose Islamist government practises vibrant Holocaust-denial, hosting a yearly Holocaust cartoon contest -- was invited to attend as a special keynote speaker, a man who had often spoken publicly, including at the United Nations of destroying Israel.

Emboldened by the near-universal reaction of approval of countries world-wide of the declaration equating the existence of Israel with racism and apartheid, an annual "Al Quds Day" was inaugurated, its purpose to hasten the "liberation" of Jerusalem, violently if necessary. "United Against Apartheid" is one of the themes to hammer home the message that Iran-backed groups deplore the concept of apartheid, and the existence of Israel is even more deplorable.

Yet despite these blistering hate attacks against a state belonging to the United Nations whose own declaration upholds the primary focus of equality and justice for all, the United Nations has once again allocated funding and scheduled another anniversary celebration of the Durban Declaration and the noble work carried out by the UN's member-bodies, all of whom at one point or another have challenged Israel's existence while labelling it an offence against humanity.

One waits with bated breath for other democracies for whom justice and human rights are fundamental to their values to step up and separate themselves from these rabid, rancid declarations of hate. Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Poland, as example, have yet to take steps to declare solidarity with a member-democracy for whom human rights is a central feature of its justice system. France and the United Kingdom see their society assailed  by violent anti-Semitism but have not seen fit to join Canada, the U.S., Australia and Israel in denouncing the United Nations for its support for overt anti-Semitism.

And so the 20th anniversary events for an international conference supporting human rights and condemning racism is set to reconvene once again as Durban IV on September 22, to commemorate the 2001 Durban Declaration, authorized by the United Nations, marking 20 years since the World Conference on Racism in Durban. An event which "continues to be used to push anti-Israel sentiment and as a forum for anti-Semitism", in the words of Liberal MP Anthony Housefather in declaring Canada's position.

A participant waves Canadian and Israeli flags at a pro-Israel rally at Calgary city hall in a file photo from July 31, 2014. Canada has announced it is boycotting the Durban IV conference in New York this September due to anti-Semitism and the anti-Israel nature of the original event in 2001. Photo by Mike Drew/Postmedia News