DURBAN III TO BE HELD IN NYC – AND TO BE BOYCOTTED BY THE US, CANADA, ISRAEL…

Oh, this one is going to hit the news like a 50 megaton bomb. Ten years ago the Durban Declaration conference was all over the place until Sept. 11 wiped it off the front pages. For those who don’t remember, it was a summit on racism put on by the United Nations, and when you are the United States and you’re talking about racism, the conservatives will go insane if it is white people you are talking about. But we pretty much take a neutral stance on this because charges of anti-semitism have been leveled at the conference, and being that we are talking about Arabic countries, there might be something to that. On the other hand, it’s the Zionism is Racism stance that folks have issues with, but if you are going to say that this particular stance is wrong, it isn’t helping much when Zionists like Brigitte Gabriel is running around telling people that Muslims “have no soul” Still, there is also something to note about the hypocrisy of some of those complaining. The Anti-Defamation League, one of those decrying this conference, validated the screechings of Pamela Geller and said Muslims should not build a Islamic Center so close to where the World Trade Center site, putting that issue in the news all last summer. You can best believe the rallies, punditry and hate will be all over the place behind this, and while we are indifferent about the event, our question to those opposed to it is given the accepted hatred leveled towards Muslims, did you do anything to beat it back, or are you just let it happen or contribute to it? If you did contribute to it, why should we listen to you now?

Times Live

The US will snub the UN summit on racism being held in New York in September to commemorate 10 years since the controversial 2001 Durban Declaration conference. 

 “We will not participate in the Durban commemoration,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. “In December, we voted against the resolution establishing this event because we believe the Durban process includes displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism, and we don’t want to see that commemorated.” President Barack Obama’s administration told lawmakers of the decision this week, joining Canada and Israel in boycotting the event known as Durban III.

 The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said she was “gratified” by the decision. She said it would “like its predecessors … no doubt be hijacked by extremists and turned into an anti-Western, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hatefest.”  Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said it was “an insult to America that the United Nations has decided to hold the Durban III conference in New York City just days from the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks”. “We all witnessed how extreme anti-Semitic and anti-American voices took over Durban I and Durban II and we should expect the same with Durban III,” she said.

Israel joined the US in opposing the UN General Assembly resolution in December that convened the follow-up to the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban. The resolution passed by 104 votes to 22, with 33 abstentions. The 2001 conference was marked by bitter disputes and walkouts over plans to include condemnations of Zionism in the final declaration. Nine governments – including Canada, the US, Australia, Israel, Germany and Britain – boycotted last year’s Durban II talks in Geneva. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the conference to launch a virulent attack on Israel.