StandWithUs, UN Watch, Eye on the UN all plan counter-protests against Durban III anti-racism conference.
By JORDANA HORN, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENTStandWithUs group 311(photo credit: Michael Dickson)
NEW YORK – In a week where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has assumed a starring role at the UN General Assembly, the Durban III conference against racism is slated to take place as well, along with ample counter-protests.Durban III is an informal name for Thursday’s series of meetings marking the 10th anniversary of the Durban Conference in South Africa, which was denounced by many as a forum in which anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment were nurtured and flourished.RELATED:France, New Zealand pull out of Durban III over racism Poland not sending official delegation to Durban III Durban III, slated for Thursday, is a one-day meeting with speakers and discussions designed to discuss “victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance: recognition, justice and development.”Among Thursday’s slated speakers is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.The United States, Israel, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom will boycott Durban III.Many events will take place in opposition to Durban III. The Los Angelesbased pro-Israel organization StandWithUs plans a three-ring circus demonstration in front of UN headquarters, also on Thursday.“One good way to counter the Durban conference’s hypocritical travesty of human rights is with parody.Sometimes humor reveals the deepest truths.There is no possible rational response to the Durban conference’s perverse distortions.They are too divorced from any reality. In fact, they turn reality upside down. We plan to fight the UN ‘clowns’ with actual clowns that expose their hypocrisy and perversity,” Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, said in a statement.
The Geneva-based nongovernmental organization UN Watch has organized an international human rights summit, “We Have A Dream: Global Summit Against Discrimination and Persecution.”The summit (http://ngosummit.org) on Wednesday and Thursday, with participants including murdered journalist Daniel Pearl’s widow, Mariane Pearl, will urge reform of UN human rights mechanisms and “oppose participation of repressive regimes like China, Iran and Saudi Arabia on UN bodies that regulate the rights of women and other basic freedoms.”Another conference meant to counteract Durban III, “The Perils of Global Intolerance: The United Nations and ‘Durban III,’” will take place on Thursday sponsored by Eye on the UN, a project of the Hudson Institute.The speakers at this conference (www.durbanwatch.com) will include 1986 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Dore Gold, president of The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
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