Edited by: Fern Sidman

The U.N. General Assembly pledged Wednesday to redouble efforts to combat racism around the world, commemorating the 2001 Durban World Conference on Racism, (a landmark but contentious anti-racism forum), by holding an anniversary meeting once again riven with severe strife and divisions.

Looking back on the two decades since the conference in Durban, South Africa, the assembly adopted a resolution that acknowledged some progress but deplored what it called a rise in discrimination, violence and intolerance directed at people of African heritage and many other groups — from the Roma to refugees, the young to the old, people with disabilities to people who have been displaced.

Durban IV’s theme was “Reparations, racial justice and equality for people of African descent,” and included the adoption of the original Durban Declaration, in which the Israel-Palestinian conflict is the only one specifically mentioned, as was reported by the Jerusalem Post.

The attendees voted in favor of a statement that noted an increase in “racist violence, threats to violence, discrimination and stigmatization” against Asians in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, but does not mention the increase in pandemic-related anti-Semitism and distortion of the Holocaust, according to the JPost report.

The 2001 Durban World Conference, aiming to address the struggle against racism, was abused by Muslim and Arab states and anti-Israel non-governmental organizations and became a blatant anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hate-fest, singling out and lynching Israel in such a manner as to permanently taint the name of the Durban conference.

What should have ostensibly been a serious colloquium of the leaders and experts of virtually all countries of the world at the first major international diplomatic conference of the third millennium, convened on the African continent, which has suffered so much from slavery apartheid and racism, tragically became indelibly stained. The forum was undermined because of an irrepressible and irresistible urge by Arab and Muslim states, Iran, the PLO, and non-governmental organizations to abuse the conference with a clear anti-Israel agenda.

The initial conference documentation, emanating from a series of regional conferences, expert seminars, and a formal preparatory committee, and placed before the conferees at the opening of the meeting, contained proposals to condemn “Zionist racist practices against Semitism,” described Israel as a “racist, apartheid state,” and accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing of the Arab population in historic Palestine.”

In a blatant affront to the memory of the Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust, the conference documentation attempted to downgrade the term “Holocaust” with multiple references to “holocausts” suffered by other peoples, including the Palestinians. Similarly, the Draft Program of Action called to end the “foreign occupation of Jerusalem by Israel, together with all its racist practices” and called upon all states to refrain from recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The damage caused by this public condemnation of Israel laid the groundwork for a concerted campaign in the international community to undermine and delegitimize the State of Israel and served as the inspiration for the launching of the infamous BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanction) campaign that continues to be waged against Israel.

The UN and its respective High Commissioners for Human Rights have attempted to re-legitimize the Durban process through Review Conferences in 2009 and 2011, which reaffirmed the Durban I conference declarations and plans of action, thereby in effect reaffirming and sanctioning the calls to delegitimize Israel.

At the 2009 conference, a speech by Iran’s then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacking Israel sparked a temporary walkout by many European delegates.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said Friday, a record 31 countries will be skipping the event, over double the number that have done so in the past.

“In recent months I have worked for the world to understand that the Durban Conference was fundamentally rotten,” he said in a Monday tweet. “I’m glad many more understand this today.”

“This is an achievement for Israel proving that an understanding has permeated that the Durban Conference was an event plagued with hatred and anti-Semitism, and that the decision made at the conference does not contribute to the fight against racism,” Erdan stated. “Rather, the opposite is true, and therefore, countries are avoiding it.”

The Jerusalem Post reported that a total of 34 countries openly boycotted Wednesday’s conference at the UN. This is more than twice as many countries that opted out of the event than the previous Durban Review Conference in 2011, when 14 did so.

The countries boycotting Durban IV were: Albania, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, UK, US and Uruguay.

Thanking the countries for their support, Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement: “The original Durban Conference, an UN-hosted event, became the worst international manifestation of anti-Semitism since WWII. Inflammatory speeches, discriminatory texts, and a pro-Hitler march that took place outside the halls were only part of the ugliness displayed in 2001. The ‘World Conference on Racism’ actually ended up encouraging it, including through the parallel NGO forum, which displayed caricatures of Jews with hooked noses and fangs dripping with blood, clutching money.”

The Foreign Ministry said that the organizations seeking to demonize and boycott Israel 20 years ago continue their campaign, but have failed.

“Israel is a thriving state that is increasing its cooperation with countries in the region and will continue to do so,” it said.

In a statement issued on Monday, Dianne Lob, Chair, William Daroff, CEO, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Vice Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said:

“We commend the twenty countries that are refusing to participate in the September 22 commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the infamous UN World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa, which openly embraced anti-Semitism and anti-Israel extremism.

We salute Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom, which join the United States and Israel in declining to participate in the celebratory events that will occur in New York this week. These governments are rightfully rejecting the despicable hatred that was uniquely leveled against the Jewish State and the Jewish people twenty years ago.

We encourage other nations to join this growing coalition in continuing to fight racism, bigotry, and anti-Semitism, while rejecting and not participating in such odious proceedings.”