This week in Durban,
South Africa
It
was time to walk: Last night, just before 6:00 p.m. Durban, South
Africa time,
Jewish Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) attending the
United Nations
World Conference Against Racism received word that the U.S.
and Israel were
about to walk out of the conference. After three days of
negotiations in Durban,
which followed weeks of negotiations in both
Geneva and on a bilateral level
in capitols around the world, it was clear
there would be no movement on the
offensive language about Israel. Norway
had proposed language that could possibly
have salvaged the documents, but
we are hearing that only a few dozen countries
were willing to sign onto
the compromise.
The JCPA followed Israel and the US, leaving the conference.
(See the JCPA
website for
our press statement.) Some countries are considering "walking" as
well, while others have pledged to continue working over the course of the
remaining four days to press for removal of the anti-Israel and
anti-Semitic
language contained in the formal government documents. The
Jewish Caucus here
in Durban held a press conference earlier today once
again expressing our
condemnation of the conference although emphasizing
that we have not abandoned
the conference goals.
NGO Forum Votes on Radical and Hostile Agenda:
The Government conference
overlapped by two days the NGO meetings, which ended
Saturday night.
After cheering wildly for Cuban leader Fidel Castro, NGO delegates
gathered in a large tent to consider the NGO documents. The second
presentation,
by the Ecumenical Caucus, called for the deletion of a
paragraph in the section
on "Antisemitism", which said:
"We are concerned with
the prevalence of antizionism and attempts
to delegitimize the State of Israel
through wildly inaccurate charges of
genocide, war crimes, crimes against
humanity, ethnic cleansing and
apartheid, as a virulent contemporary form
of antisemitism leading to
firebombing of synagogues, armed assaults against
Jews, incitements to
killing, and the murder of innocent Jews, for their support
for the
existence of the State of Israel, the assertion of the right to self
determination of the Jewish people and the attempts, through the State of
Israel, to preserve their cultural and religious identity."
The
vote in favor of deleting this section was decisive, with only the
Jewish
Caucus in opposition. After the vote, members of the Caucus rose
spontaneously,
began to chant "shame, shame, shame," and walked out of
the tent
and out of the NGO Conference as well. UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights
and secretary general of the conference Mary Robinson was
presented with the
NGO documents this afternoon and is reported to have
temporarily rejected
the sections on Israel. While it remains unclear
what will happen to the omitted
sections, the actions of the drafting
committee and those in charge have created
an unsettling and chaotic
situation. Although the NGO documents have no official
impact on the
diplomatic conference and its documents, the process has engendered
a
hostile atmosphere, which has pervaded the Convention Center and all the
proceedings.
JCPA Civil Rights Partners Persevere: JCPA coalition partners
who came to
Durban with the delegation from the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights
have also been victimized by those who have hijacked this conference,
attempting to turn it from a conference against racism to a referendum on
the situation in the Middle East. Tragically their issues have barely
received
the attention they deserve. The groups led by LCCR Executive
Director Wade
Henderson will hold a press conference tomorrow morning to
try to garner some
attention. They are expected to express their
disappointment with the U.S.
decision to leave, while also condemning as
repugnant the hate speech and
antisemitism that has been rampant at the
conference. (The Leadership Conference
on Civil Rights is the largest,
oldest, and most diverse civil rights umbrella
agency in the U.S.)
Follow-up: You may wish to send letters to U.S.
Secretary of State Colin
Powell, thanking him and the Bush administration
for unflinching support
throughout these past months at preparatory conferences
and in Durban.
Convey our gratitude to the U.S. delegation for its tireless
work in
pursuit of genuine racial reconciliation and language that would have
enabled the conference to refocus its attention and the world's on its
original
critical goals.
Write to
Secretary Powell at the U.S.
Department
of State
2201
C Street, NW,
Washington, D.C.20520;
Stay
tuned to the JCPA website for
additional updates.