Michael J. Jordan
Was Durban II a success or failure?
The Jewish conspiracy against Durban II (No, seriously)
GENEVA – It’s no secret who was behind the effort to discredit the 2009 Durban Review Conference in Geneva.
For nearly a year before the anti-racism confab, Jewish and pro-Israel groups lobbied hard to get Western countries to boycott the gathering, which they said was certain to treat Israel unfairly, just as the first Durban conference had done in 2001.
Indeed, during the months leading up to the conference, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, noted several times that an orchestrated campaign was behind Western threats to boycott the conference, dubbed Durban II.
Diplomats make end run with early ratification of final Durban document
GENEVA – Durban II reached its conclusion, it seemed, three days early.
A day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tirade against Israel triggered a walkout by the European delegation and generated headlines around the world, diplomats at the U.N. forum scrambled to ratify the conference’s final document on Tuesday — three days before the parley’s close, when the document was scheduled to be adopted.
It was not immediately clear whether the move was meant to head off further debate over the text or to prevent additional walkouts by delegations in protest.
The document ratified by delegates includes the item that prompted Israel and half a dozen other countries to boycott the conference: reaffirmation of the 2001 Durban document, which singles out Israel, brands it a racist country, and cites the Palestinians as victims of racism.
Determined to thwart a repeat of 2001, pro-Israel groups fight hard at Durban II
GENEVA – Eight years ago, the European Union of Jewish Students sent a 10-person delegation to Durban, South Africa, for the first U.N. World Conference Against Racism.
They, like other pro-Israel activists there, were blown away by the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hostility that greeted them.
So when the follow-up to Durban came to Geneva this week in the form of Durban II, the union was better prepared.
They came en masse — with some 150 Jewish students from about 30 European countries — constituting more than one-tenth of all activists accredited to the Durban Review Conference. Throughout the week, they advocated on behalf of Israel.
