Germany is the latest country to announce that it will be boycotting the upcoming 20th anniversary of the 2001 UN Durban conference known as Durban IV.
The World Conference Against Racism that took place in Durban, South African in 2001 was roundly criticized for descending into an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatefest.
Durban IV, set to take place September 22, was already being boycotted by multiple nations, including Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.
The decision was praised by American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris.
"Germany has once again, as it did in 2009 and 2011, laudably recognized the discredited nature of the original conference, held in Durban, South Africa. We hope other nations will follow suit,” said Harris.
He added that “confronting true racism around the world is a noble cause” but “singling out one country, Israel, and one group of people, Jews, for continual censure is grossly unjust, and undermines the global fight against anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry and hatred.”
B’nai Brith International also applauded the move, tweeting, “We welcome the news that Germany will not participate in UN commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Durban conference, which was overtaken by anti-Jewish, anti-Israel bigotry. All democracies must do similarly.”
In March, Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and the NGO Human Rights Voices, criticized a UN statement signed by 150 nations endorsing the 2001 Durban conference. She also slammed the the Biden Administration's decision to take the lead along with South Africa and the African regional group in presenting the statement.
"The Durban Declaration encourages the hatred of Jews. Everyone who was there at its creation (as I was) knows that. Anti-Semites manufacture tools to spread intolerance by manipulating current events, appropriating the history of others, inverting right and wrong," Bayefsky said.
UN Watch described Durban IV as "(endorsing) this perversion of the principles of anti-racism.”