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.