Boycott Durban II 

By Bernie M. Farber and Eric Vernon
February 5, 2009
The National Post
Original Source: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/02/05/bernie-m-farber-and-eric-vernon-boycott-durban-ii.aspx

A year has gone by since the Conservative government pulled Canada out of the tainted and corrupt Durban Review Conference (DRC), a United Nations event to be held this April in Geneva to “evaluate progress towards the goals set by the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, in 2001.” Canadians will remember that the 2001 conference featured a parade of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel bigotry — and Stephen Harper deserves credit for distancing Canada from the 2009 sequel.
Over the last 12 months, Syria, Pakistan, Cuba, Iran and numerous co-conspirators have been hard at work, manipulating the DRC agenda to suit their own purposes. Yet since last January, only Israel has joined Canada in boycotting the proceedings. Several other democracies have staked out a wait-and-see attitude. What are they waiting for?
The DRC will go beyond a limited review of the original Durban gathering’s “action plan” and focus on four main objectives: demonizing Israel; targeting the potential threat of counter-terrorism measures as being worse than the real threat of terror; attacking expressive freedom; and crystallizing the dangerous new UN concept of “defamation of religion” — which in reality means defamation of Islam. 
These goals unequivocally breach the European Union’s own previously stated red lines in regard to the DRC agenda, and so there is nothing standing in the way of European nations’ withdrawal. Similarly, the wait for a new administration to assume power in Washington is over, and Barack Obama should now announce that his government will not participate in the conference.
If the civilized nations of the world need more convincing, consider this: In addition to their four over-arching objectives, the DRC’s planners have added Holocaust denial to their list of ransom demands. 
The UN’s 2005 Holocaust Remembrance resolution, commemorated in recent days, obliges member states “to observe that remembrance of the Holocaust is critical to prevent further acts of genocide; [condemn] without reservation any denial of the Holocaust” and “urge[s] all member states to reject denial of the Holocaust as an historical event, either in full or in part, or in any activities.” When the EU tried to insert this language into the DRC planning document, the Iranian delegate had this to say: “There is a notion inside this paragraph where there is talk about condemning without reservation any denial of holocaust. This entails with it implicit restriction on elaboration and review, or critical examination and review and study of holocaust — which is a very clear example of a violation of freedom of expression … a fundamental principle right for a democratic society … We suggest the deletion of this paragraph.”
Iran and its rogue allies prefer to promote their narrow vision of hatred, rather than confront the world’s legitimate human rights needs. It is time for democratic nations to deny legitimacy to the farce that is the DRC. Let’s commit to actually doing something to combat racism and xenophobia, and let the Durban Review Conference fester in its own pool of poison.
National Post
– Bernie M. Farber and Eric Vernon are CEO and director of government relations and international affairs, respectively, at Canadian Jewish Congress.