News Brief

U.N. officials said Saturday that the United States has been unable to change any of the draft documents or statements that are being prepared for the "Durban II" conference, to be held in Geneva April 20. The second World Conference Against Racism is thus set to be as anti-Israel as the first one that was held in Durban, South Africa, in August 2001 – weeks before the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. As a result, the officials said, it was likely that the American delegation would recommend that the U.S. boycott the meeting, after President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would send a delegation.

The conference draft committee, which is in the process of deciding which amendments will be discussed, is chaired by a Libyan, and the assistant chairpeople consist of an Iranian and a Cuban – making it almost impossible for the U.S. to have any influence on the decision making process, the officials said.

According to the officials, nearly all the 100 or so amendments that meeting participants are hoping to place on the meeting's agenda relate to Israeli "occupation of Palestinian lands," Israel's being responsible for "the plight of Palestinian refugees," and other similar statements. The draft committee is still undecided on whether to add a line to the conference's official platform that the Holocaust "resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people."