US won't participate in racism conference

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Feb 27, 4:30 PM EST

US won't participate in racism conference

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United States has decided not to participate in a U.N. conference on racism in April unless the final document is changed to drop all references to Israel and its criticism of religion, a senior U.S. official said Friday.

The conference is a follow-up to the contentious 2001 conference in the South African city of Durban which was dominated by clashes over the Middle East and the legacy of slavery. The U.S. and Israel walked out midway through that eight-day meeting over a draft resolution that singled out Israel for criticism and likened Zionism - the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state - to racism.

Israel and Canada have already announced that they will boycott the upcoming World Conference Against Racism in Geneva from April 20-25, known as Durban II, but President Barack Obama's administration decided to assess the negotiations before making a decision on U.S. participation.

Last week, the State Department sent two U.S. representatives to Geneva, where the final document to be issued by conference participants at the end of the conference is being negotiated, the U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because an official announcement has not yet been made.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UN_UN_RACISM_CONFERENCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-02-27-16-30-38

[ananda]

1. Complicit partners in oppressing the darkskinned other...

that would be the USA and Israel.

They got each others' backs; it
takes one to know one and try to
foist it on the world as something
else.

[hack89]

9. Because there are no dark skinned Americans or Israelis?

got it.

[byeya]

2. Israel says "no" & the USA can't appease them quickly

enough. It's an embarrassment in my opinion.

[Politicalboi]

3. I agree

And welcome :hi:

[byeya]

4. Thank you. I am happy to be here at DU

[liberalsince1968]

5. My opinion too.

[badgervan]

25. I Agree

... and I think many of us are getting more than fed up with it.

[Wizard777]

6. I like the conditions. Theres a difference between a racism conference and a racist conference.

If they want to make the changes and hold a racism conference. Then there is no way we can miss that. But if they want to hold a racist conference. There is no way we can attend that.

[marshall]

7. All the racism in the world, and they just single out one

I do get the point. Maybe they could have included a few more countries just to make it look fair.

[Hardrada]

19. Such as?

[marshall]

23. Well, we could begin with the US for starters

Suffice it to say, Israel is not the only place where one could argue that racism exists.

[pampango]

8. Do UN conferences always negotiate the final document before the conference starts?

"Last week, the State Department sent two U.S. representatives to Geneva, where the final document to be issued by conference participants at the end of the conference is being negotiated, the U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because an official announcement has not yet been made."

It would make sense to go to a conference with the intention of discussing racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance. But what's with a conference that has already determined its final agreement before it starts?

I thought the idea of the UN was to give countries a forum to get together and talk to resolve differences in a peaceful manner, not hold a conference with a predetermined outcome. That should be true no matter what the topic: immigration, trade, HIV-AIDS, women's issues. Get together and discuss them. If after the discussion and negotiation, some country doesn't want to sign the final document, they have that right. It would be kind of funny to have a conference on immigration and tell countries, "We've already written the final document with the conference's position on immigration. Now you are welcome to attend the conference to "discuss" what to do about immigration."

"European nations have expressed hope that the conference can go ahead with a final text that is acceptable. But they have also drawn lines they say may not be crossed."

Seems that Canada and the US aren't the only ones possibly not showing up. I believe Australia is also still deciding whether to go.

"French diplomat Daniel Vosgien said in December that his country was firmly opposed to the idea of banning criticism of religion. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said at the time that the Netherlands would walk out unless anti-Israel statements were scrapped."

Who would sign a document that bans criticism of religion? There's one Jewish country, several Islamic countries, some Catholic countries. Discuss them all and criticize those that deserve it. No way should religion be banned from criticism. (That's something Bush would have liked.)

[Igel]

29. Many of them.

The more bottom-up they purport to be, the larger the set of attendees, the more things are preprepared so as to facilitate discussion and keep the conference 'on task.'

If you get 500 organizations together, there'll be chaos and discord, and that's a no-no. So they mitigate the chaos by having a working group put together the document they want approved on the issues they deem appropriate. There can be amendments, but given the cast of characters and the desire for "consensus" that's unlikely. For the same reason, most amendments are trivial or follow the same lines as what was originally proposed. They also mitigate the discord that would ensue--those that vehemently disagree don't show up, allowing the charge that they simply don't want to talk; those that disagree and show up either have to raise a stink and get the bad press or merely stay quiet.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rpannier]

11. So only Israel and Zionism are racist?

But, not anybody else.

I support the administration on this one.

[MessiahRp]

12. Wow.

Even Obama's administration doesn't seem to get why so many in the Muslim world hate us. How can we help arbitrate peace if we're always showing how unbiased we are in this process?

Rp

[MasonJar]

13. USA blackmailed again!

[msongs]

14. doh if nations with racism stayed home nobody would be there lol nt

[katandmoon]

15. Of course, Israel must be coddled at all costs by the U.S. But it's not the only offender. WTF does

The UN even bother to hold these conferences? Are they anything other than a waste of time, money, and energy?

[BluePatriot21]

16. The PNAC and AIPAC

groups are smiling and chuckling still? Smarmy Bill Kristol nods his head and plays air guitar again like Bill and Ted.

[ReliantJ]

17. God forbid

we sent an intern to this

[Mr. Sparkle]

18. The American government continues to pander to Israel ... For Shame !!

[Swede]

20. That's good to hear.

It's going to be a racist bashing conference.

[Jefferson23]

21. Now that is a damn shame and disgraceful decision to not attend.

From Durbin 1, another POV.

Durban 1: What really happened at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance

By Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom on March 3, 2008 - Speaking as the RHR representative who actually witnessed what went on in Durban first hand, and wasn’t spoon fed by reports in the western media, I am happy to have this opportunity to tell everyone here that the 2001 conference was not “hijacked by anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli parties.” True, among the many thousands of activists, there were some rather off-color expressions of anger against Israel, Zionism and the West in general, but nothing that justified the walk-out initiated by the U.S. and joined by American Jewish establishment organizations (or vis versa).

The general feeling there was that the U.S. and pro-Israeli government bodies, realizing that this would be forum that would demand reparations for the exploitation of Africa (centuries of slavery, etc.) and the Palestinian loss of homeland, decided out of naked self-interest to blacken the name of the entire enterprise and muffle opposition, in the name of fairness, as if this were the UN Security Council where the U.S. can cast yet one more veto; no, this was more like the UN General Assembly, where on these issues, the vote is 125-3 (U.S., Israel and Micronesia).

I hope very much that by the time this second follow-up conference comes around, the coalition between a right-wing American administration that hasn’t the slightest commitment to human rights, and right-wing American Jewish organizations whose concern about human rights in the Middle East only reaches as far as Darfur will be a painful but faint memory, and that RHR will rejoin the global human rights community, and clearly state its loyalty to the human family and not to ANY government.

http://rhr.israel.net/durban-1-what-really-happened-at-the-world-conference-against-racism-racial-discrimination-xenophobia-and-related-intolerance

[iandhr]

22. Zionism - the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state - to racism

sounds like Anti-Smite bullshit to me.

[Ed76638]

24. Because we dare not oppose the imperialism in the West Bank n/t

[MellowDem]

26. sounds less like a serious conference on racism

and more like an opportunity for countries to bring up old prejudices and bitter histories. Judging by how the last one went, I don't mind us not going to this one.

[rockymountaindem]

27. My thoughts exactly

There's no reason for us to legitimize such a meeting.

[No Elephants]

28. walked out? I agree that Israel should not be singled out, nor should Zionism be equated with

racism. But, walk out of the meeting? Whether or not we ultimately attend the conference, walking out of the meeting seems like childish drama, a tantrum. And our presence at the meeting, after we protested the language, may have tempered the rest of the meeting. With Israel and the U.S. out of the room, I am sure the rest of the meeting was worse than the part we attended.

Lord, I wish those at the top of nations were all sane and adult.