American Jewish Committee Delegation Set to Attend UN Conference Against Racism

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 2 August 2001

A high-level American Jewish Committee delegation is preparing to attend the UN's World Conference Against Racism later this month in Durban, South Africa.

Jason Isaacson, director of AJC's Office of Government and International Affairs, is leading the delegation, which includes:

- Felice Gaer, Director of AJC's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
- Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC's Director of International Jewish Affairs
- Jeffrey Weill, Deputy Director of AJC's Blaustein Institute
- Andrew Srulevitch, Executive Director of AJC's Geneva-based institute, UN Watch
- Haina Just, AJC's Senior Media Adviser

The AJC has worked vigorously for more than four years to advocate for the inclusion in the Conference Agenda and final document recognition of anti-Semitism as a form of racism, and to fight against the insidious effort to declare that Zionism is a form of racism. These advocacy efforts have included meetings – continuing this week – with scores of governments and non-governmental organizations.

In recent days, AJC has participated in the decisive pre-conference preparatory session in Geneva and in a critical "eminent persons" planning session in London, and delivered to more than 150 foreign ministers appeals and detailed information packets on controversial issues before the UN conference.

In its recent letter to foreign ministers, the AJC pointed out that all references to anti-Semitism in the draft conference document have been bracketed – at the request of certain UN member states – for later deletion, that references to the Holocaust have been bracketed with new language added that serves to denigrate the Holocaust and its uniqueness, and that the document singles out Israel – alone among UN states – for special criticism and attack and revives the "Zionism is racism" canard rejected by the UN a decade ago.

"Racism and racial discrimination are blights on humanity, and a forthright examination of these pernicious and pervasive phenomena would be a valuable contribution to public understanding and a spur to action," Mr. Isaacson said this week in testimony submitted to the House International Affairs Committee in Washington.

"An honest, fair, non-politicized and ultimately successful conference in Durban is our earnest objective," said Mr. Isaacson. "Regrettably, the positive aspects of an international conference devoted, at its core, to the noble fights against bigotry and hate threaten to be overturned by a concerted effort to politicize and polarize the Durban forum as yet another engagement in the ongoing campaign to isolate, defame and delegitimize the State of Israel. This campaign must not be allowed to subvert the Durban conference."

In the weeks leading up to the Durban conference, the AJC delegation will continue to advocate the following objectives for the Durban conference:

- To advance core conference goals to identify "best practices" and action-oriented measures to combat racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance at present and in the future.
- To include recognition at the World Conference of the fact that the fight against anti-Semitism is an integral part of combating all racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance, and that anti-Semitic incidents persist. AJC has sought to encourage specific references and policy recommendations in WCAR documents, speeches and proposals regarding the need to eradicate anti-Semitism.
- To guard against insertion of anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, or anti-Israeli language in Conference documents.
- To address properly the legacy of the Holocaust.

The AJC has been involved in international human rights initiatives for nearly a century, and played a critical role in securing the inclusion of human rights in the UN Charter and in formulating the landmark Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Mr. Isaacson and other members of the AJC delegation are available for interviews this month, before departing for Durban, and will be available in Durban as well.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org