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World Jewish News
United States withdraws from Durban II preparations
02.03.2009
The Obama administration has pulled out has of preparations for the UN anti-racism conference in April. The State Department said that unless the final document was changed to drop all references to Israel and criticism of Islam as a religion, the United States would boycott the so-called Durban Review Conference, or Durban II. The conference is a follow-up to the contentious 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa, which was dominated by clashes over the Middle East and the legacy of slavery. The US and Israel walked out of the meeting over a draft resolution which singled out Israel for criticism and likened Zionism to racism.
Israel and Canada already announced last year that they would boycott the Durban II forum, but president Barack Obama's administration decided to assess the negotiations before making a decision on US participation. The State Department sent two US representatives to Geneva, where the final declaration, to be issued by conference participants at the end of the conference, is currently being negotiated. A spokesman of the State Department said that in the negotiations, a bad document had gone worse, and that therefore the US Government had decided that it would not participate in further negotiations on the outcome document and in the conference itself on the basis of the latest text.
The executive director of the World Jewish Congress United States, Betty Ehrenberg, welcomed the US decision. Speaking with the 'Jerusalem Post', she expressed hope that all countries would boycott the Durban II conference, especially European countries, such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Italy.
See the WJC feature on the Durban Review Conference
Источник: WJC
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