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The United Nations World Conference against Racism (WCAR) will take place in Durban, South Africa, between August 31 and September 7.
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| By Ellis Shuman August 31, 2001 |
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The United States will be represented at the United Nations World Conference against Racism by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, Michael Southwick. The American decision to send a relatively low level delegation to the week-long conference, which opens in Durban, South Africa, on Friday, will most likely lead to Israel's attendance as well, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior.
Israel's participation in the conference remained doubtful throughout the week, after U.S. Secretary of States Colin Powell announced that he would not be participating. After weeks of speculation, the State Department said that Powell had decided not to attend because of Arab-backed "offensive language'' that accused Israel of implementing racist policies against Palestinians.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the
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"The United States must not dignify this anti-Israel lynching with its high-level participation."
- U.S. Representative Tom Lantos
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Bush administration was disturbed by the focus that many countries want to place on Israel. "It's the only country that seems to be singled out,'' he said.
Attempts to get the anti-Israel resolutions off the conference agenda failed, but according to media reports, a number of countries, including India, New Zealand, Australia and France, have said that they would stand by Israel and oppose these resolutions.
Powell's decision not to attend was praised by U.S. Representative Tom Lantos (D-California) who said "the United States must not dignify this anti-Israel lynching with its high-level participation.''
Glen A. Tobias, national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and Abraham H. Foxman, its national director, said Powell's decision sent a clear message that "the United States would not legitimize the attempts to resurrect unfounded anti-Israel and anti-Jewish canards'' at the U.N. conference.
Some Jewish organizations, including the Jewish Agency, the World Jewish Congress and the ADL, decided to boycott the conference so as not to lend it any legitimacy. Avi Beker, the international director of the WJC, warned that if Zionism was determined to be racism, and Israel practices ethnic cleansing and genocide, as the draft proposals state, the killing of Israelis and Jews would be "legitimized" by those countries participant to the decision.
Israel objects to Durban conference proposals
Israel's delegation to the conference remained at home, awaiting news of the final decision of the Americans. "If the U.S. boycotts, we will boycott," one Foreign Ministry official told the Jerusalem Post.
Melchior held a conference call Monday night with some 50 international Jewish organizations scheduled to participate in Durban. Melchior said that Israel would not take part in a farce that would attempt to legitimize the hatred of the Jewish people. He said that Israel would only participate if there was a "diplomatic miracle" and the anti-Israel language was taken off the agenda.
Earlier Monday Melchior told the Foreign Press Association that Islamic fundamentalists had kidnapped the Durban conference. "They have turned it into a stage from which they can isolate Israel, slander its name and bring about our total de-legitimization."
Conference proposals include clauses that define Israel as a racist state, and relate to the "occupation" as a new form of apartheid and as crimes against humanity. The proposals declare the conditions of the Palestinians as a "holocaust" and define Zionists as Anti-Semites, because, it is argued, Israeli (Zionist) actions are directed against the (Semitic) Palestinian people.
"If you turn our conflict into an existential conflict, if you claim that the creation of the State of Israel - not Israeli policies, but the creation of the State of Israel - was an ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, then you are already on a field where there is nothing to negotiate," Melchior warned.
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