BERLIN – A Polish diplomat informed The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the
Polish government will not send an official delegation to participate in the
Durban III anti-racism conference slated for September 22 in New York
City.
“Poland’s high-level delegation is not planned for the Durban III
conference,” wrote Jacek Biegal, a spokesman for the Polish Embassy in Berlin,
in an email to the Post on Thursday.
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Critics accuse the UN-sponsored
Durban event with stoking hate against the Jewish state because its founding
document attacks only Israel as a violator of human rights.
When asked
repeatedly by the Post if Poland intends to walk away from the Durban III event,
Biegal said, “That is final official statement with no other
comments.”
Poland currently heads the 27-member European Union, placing
it in a unusual situation because its decision to possibly stay away from Durban
III could be viewed as EU policy.
Poland’s six- month term runs from July
until December.
The United Kingdom announced on Wednesday that it will
not attend Durban III, joining Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, the United
States, Israel, Austria, Australia, Canada, Bulgaria and the
Netherlands.
If Poland intends not to show up with a formal delegation,
it would mean that 12 countries are boycotting the Durban III event. The Polish
government, traditionally considered a close ally of Israel, would send an
additional blow to the UN organizers.
Anne Bayefsky, an expert on the
Durban process and director of Touro College’s Institute on Human Rights and the
Holocaust, has launched a counter-conference to Durban III, also on September 22
in New York.
She told the Post on Thursday that if Poland has withdrawn,
as it did from Durban II in Geneva, then it should be congratulated.
“The
UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation is attempting to hijack world
leaders already arriving in New York for the annual opening of the General
Assembly, and to force them to be part of this appalling attack on Israel and
human rights. Poland has taken the right step in refusing to be bullied into
supporting an agenda that it does not share,” Bayefsky said.
The human
rights scholar urged major European powers like Germany and the UK to pull out.
She has also called on Poland and France to skip the event due its anti-Semitic
nature.
In a statement issued to the Post on Thursday, the Simon
Wiesenthal Center wrote that it “urges Poland to join the growing list of
civilized nations and boycott Durban III.”
“The only issue that the EU
should be discussing is the total and permanent de-funding of the so-called
Durban Process. From day one instead of being an effective anti-racism tool, it
has been leveraged to facilitate hate and provide their podiums for the likes of
one the world’s most dangerous bigots, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” said Rabbi Abraham
Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center who was a spokesman for
the Jewish groups at the first Durban conference a decade ago.
“With
threatened economies, growing unemployment, and bailouts for banks across
Europe, surely the EU can find something better to invest in than continuing the
Durban farce any longer,” Cooper said.
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