http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Opinion/Article.aspx?id=246310
Durban III promotes what it claims to be fighting Transcript now proves that the UN-sponsored anti-racism conference was merely a charade.
In yet another effort to demonize Israel on the political battlefield, the UN General Assembly—which can bear a striking resemblance to the game of Whac-A-Mole—will adopt a new resolution this week to promote the Durban “anti-racism” declaration.
Back in September the UN sponsored “Durban III,” an event intended by Islamic states and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to breathe new life into the ten-year-old anti-Israel vendetta which began in South Africa in 2001. Despite the unprecedented boycott by all Western veto-holding members of the Security Council – the US, Britain and France – Durban and its insidious message have popped up a mere two months later.
The regenerative nature of UN armaments, in the form of cyclical resolutions and “follow-up” mechanisms, makes them not merely annoying but dangerous. Due to this circuitous nature, battles that are won must be fought again and again.This is particularly true of the libelous 1975 UN resolution equating Zionism with racism, which was revitalized in the 2001 Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA), accusing only one state among all UN members of racism – Israel – and casting Palestinians as the victims of Israeli bigotry.
By all accounts – except the one emanating from the UN press office – Durban III failed to deliver the credibility boost that its fans were craving. In a strong rejection of the Durban III political program, 14 nations, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States and, of course, Israel all boycotted. A simultaneous counter-conference held directly across the street from the UN, involving Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel and a bipartisan group of Jewish and non-Jewish luminaries, mounted a resounding historic challenge to the UN campaign.
The UN response, however, has been to rewrite history. On September 22, 2011, at the opening ceremonies of Durban III, South African President Jacob Zuma fictionalized the original conference, saying “in Durban the world spoke with one voice” – notwithstanding the very public departure of the United States and Israel. A few hours later, the General Assembly adopted a “political declaration,” “reaffirming” the DDPA and calling the declaration “United against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.” Today, the UN website says of Durban III that “world leaders adopted by consensus a political declaration,” paying no notice to the fact that the world’s leading democracies had already voted with their feet.
