B’nai B’rith International denounced the adoption of the declaration commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 2001 Durban conference, which took place last week.
The much criticized event was held on the sidelines of the opening session of the 76th United Nations General Assembly on September 21.
The conference occurred during a “high-level meeting” of the United Nations General Assembly commemorating the two decades since the release of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA), the official document produced by the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.
The Durban conference infamously deteriorated into an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hatefest, with Israel being accused of "crimes against humanity,” “ethnic cleansing,” “apartheid” and “genocide.”
The ADL described the 2001 conference and its follow up events as “permanently tainted as a notorious vehicle to promote anti-Semitism and incite hatred against Israel.”
Durban IV, the 20th anniversary of the original Durban event, was boycotted by at least 35 countries, with Israel thanking those nations for refusing to attend.
“After a year of advocacy by B’nai B’rith and others, we salute at least 35 countries that declined to participate in the Durban commemoration,” said B’nai B’rith in a statement.
B’nai B’rtih noted that the Durban IV resolution “predictably claimed” that the DDPA outlined “a comprehensive United Nations framework and solid foundation for combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance,” and reaffirmed the signatories’ commitment to implement the document.
“Most of the countries announced their non-participation in advance, citing Durban’s anti-Jewish bigotry,” said B’nai Brith. “This public disassociation by a substantial moral minority at the UN represents a meaningful victory against efforts to hijack the world body and the critical fight against racism – specifically racism against people of African descent – for the purposes of delegitimizing Israel by obscenely equating only it and Jews’ national liberation movement, Zionism, with racism.”