American Jewish Committee Cancels Participation in UN World Conference

American Jewish Committee
Wednesday, 29 August 2001

David A. Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee, announced today that neither he nor an AJC delegation would attend the UN World Conference against Racism set to open in Durban, South Africa, on August 31.

"This well-intentioned international conference designed originally to promote tolerance will instead be remembered for giving the imprimatur to the spread of bigotry and of historical revisionism," said Mr. Harris, who wrote about the UN event in an op-ed article published in today's International Herald Tribune.

"Racism is a worldwide phenomenon, but only one country, Israel, is singled out for repeated condemnation in the draft conference document," said Mr. Harris. "The Durban gathering will be the setting for spreading bigotry against Jews, trivializing the Holocaust, denigrating Jews, and contributing to the Arab campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel," he said.

Mr. Harris, who was invited by the White House to be a member of the official U.S. delegation to the Durban conference, praised President Bush for his firm stance, articulated last Friday, regarding the UN conference, and Secretary of State Colin Powell for making every effort to get the conference agenda back on track before the secretary announced that he would not be going to Durban.

"When President Bush stated that the U.S. would not attend the conference if delegates insist on using the forum as a way to isolate Israel, he followed upon the precedents of the two previous UN conferences on racism, in 1978 and 1983, when the U.S. was forced to boycott those gatherings because some nations diverted the conference agendas to focus almost exclusively on bashing Israel," Mr. Harris said.

"Once again, a well-intentioned idea, the Durban conference, has been hijacked by a group of nations determined to create yet another anti-Israel forum," said Mr. Harris.

A separate AJC delegation, headed by Jason Isaacson, director of AJC's Washington-based Office of Government and International Affairs, was slated to leave for South Africa later this week, but will not attend.

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