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Cancel the Durban IV Review Conference

(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Amb. Alan Baker - One of the most regrettable, disappointing, and damaging phenomena of contemporary international practice has been the utter failure of the international community and the UN to deal genuinely with the evils of racism. A serious attempt by the international community to deal with racism - the 2001 Durban Conference in post-apartheid South Africa - was usurped, politicized, and manipulated into a bitter, racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel hate-fest. The forum was undermined because of an irrepressible and irresistible urge by Arab and Muslim states, Iran, the PLO, and NGOs to abuse the conference with a clear anti-Israel agenda. Both Israel and the U.S. walked out of the conference. The UN General Assembly convened second and third Durban review conferences in 2009 and 2011, which were boycotted by the U.S., Canada, Italy, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, and Poland. On September 22, 2021, the UN intends to convene a fourth Durban review conference. The U.S., Canada, the UK, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Australia, the Netherlands, and France have announced their intention to boycott this conference. Durban must be expunged and forgotten. The writer, former legal counsel to Israel's foreign ministry, heads the international law program at the Jerusalem Center.
2021-08-19 00:00:00
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