Durban IV: A diplomatic win for Israel that cannot be wasted - editorial

• Published date: 23 September 2021
• Author: JPOST EDITORIAL
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan noted that the number of nations boycotting Durban IV (34) was more than twice the number of countries that skipped the last Durban Review Conference in 2011 (14). Jerusalem had urged a boycott of the event due to its openly anti-Israel bias.

"Our demand that countries refuse to participate in the Durban process does not in any way contradict what must be our equally strong demand to speak up against racism wherever it appears," Erdan said.

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The United States, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Lithuania and Hungary were among the states skipping this year's gathering. French President Emmanuel Macron issued a statement saying, "Concerned by a history of antisemitic remarks made at the UN conference on racism, known as the Durban Conference, the President of the Republic has decided that France will not participate in the follow-up conference to be held this year."

In Jerusalem, the Foreign Ministry denounced the conference as it got underway.

"The original Durban Conference, a UN-hosted event, became the worst international manifestation of antisemitism since WWII," its statement said. "Inflammatory speeches, discriminatory texts and a pro-Hitler march that took place outside the halls were only part of the ugliness displayed in 2001."

Twenty years after the so-called World Conference on Racism, some of the same organizations that attended the first Durban parley have waged what has become known as a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the only democracy in the Middle East, but they have failed, the Foreign Ministry said.

Reviewing the two decades since Durban I, the General Assembly adopted a resolution that pledged "to accelerate momentum to make the fight against racism... a high priority."

"People of African descent, minority communities, indigenous peoples, migrants, refugees, displaced persons, and so many others – all continue to confront hatred, stigmatization, scapegoating, discrimination and violence," declared Secretary-General António Guterres. "Xenophobia, misogyny, hateful conspiracies, white supremacy and neo-Nazi ideologies are spreading, amplified in echo chambers of hate."

While the world is witnessing "a troubling rise" in antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry and the...