U.S. weighing participation in 'Durban 2' conference

By Shlomo Shamir
February 22, 2009
Haaretz
Original Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1065913.html


Draft proposals to be brought to the vote at April's UN World Conference Against Racism in Geneva, Switzerland (Durban 2) include references singling out Israel for criticism and denunciation as a state maintaining racist politics, say UN sources. The sources also said that at a preparatory meeting held over three days in Geneva saw the phrasing of working papers include proposals referring to the situation of the Palestinian refugees and the fate of other residents of the occupied Arab territories. 

The Wall Street Journal said on Friday that the states involved in phrasing the drafts have yet to reach an agreement on mentioning the Holocaust in the proposals. The phrase in question is: [the Holocaust] resulted in the murder of a third of the Jewish people. 

The United States participated in the preparatory session, raising a wave of speculation among diplomats. Some of the commentators believe that the move is part of an attempt by Washington to prepare public opinion for participation in the conference itself. The U.S., Israel, Canada and some European countries have announced that their participation in the conference is contingent on the conference not engaging in anti-Semitism, as it did during the previous conference in 2001. 

Sources in the U.S. mission to the UN said, however, that the Obama administration was still deliberating on whether to take part. The sources said that the Americans were hoping that by active participation in the conference they might influence the tone of the discussions and their outcome, especially by preventing the demonstrations of hostility toward Israel rife during the first Durban conference of 2001. These deliberations are influenced by the stated policy of the U.S. president to strive for a new, reconciled atmosphere in its relationship with the international community. 

A formal statement issued by the State Department said that participation in the Geneva meeting did not mean that the United States will attend the conference itself, but pressures in either direction are high. Leading human rights organizations have launched a campaign to persuade the administration to participate, arguing that a confrontation with proposals critical of Israel or freedom of speech was preferable to avoiding the conference altogether. Jewish organizations, on the other hand, warned against American participation. The Wall Street Journal joined in, arguing in an editorial that proposed conference decisions include constraints on freedom of speech.