Boycott 'Durban III'
By Justin Cohen 
31st December 2010
Totally Jewish
http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/?content_id=15480 \t _blank http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/?content_id=15480
Britain this week faced calls to follow Jerusalem's lead by boycotting an event marking the 10th anniversary of a notorious UN anti-racism conference that descended into an Israel-bashing forum. 
The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly last Friday to hold a summit in New York, a decade another UN event in the South African city of Durban from which Israel and America withdrew their delegations.

Longstanding fears that a follow-up event in 2009 could also single out the Jewish state led to a boycott by ten countries, while delegates from many nations that did attend staged a walkout, led by Britain, during an address by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 

Within hours of the General Assembly vote for a commemoration, dubbed Durban III, Canada and Israel announced they would not participate in an event linked to the Durban process. The Anti-Defamation League called for other countries to follow suit, warning that the Durban process was tainted by the very bias it purported to work against. 

In Britain, meanwhile, community leaders from a number of organisations have joined forces to tackle the issue under the umbrella of the Jewish Human Rights Coalition-UK. A spokes-person said: The precise configuration of the event remains unclear. However, given the history of the Durban process, it is hard to see any circumstances under which it would be appropriate for the UK to participate. We will be making this clear to the Government. 

Britain and America were among the countries to vote against the 10th anni-versary resolution, which came just weeks after Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the UK was wrong to participate in last year's Review Conference. 

Ros Preston, Chairperson of JHRC, which comprises the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council, the Community Security Trust and the Holocaust Educational Trust, said in a statement: We will be seeking to establish the government's position in the new year. 

We commend the UK government for having twice voted against the Durban 10th anniversary resolution in its current form as well as the Deputy Prime Minister's firm stance against the Durban process. JHRC is already in conversation with government officials on this issue and will work closely on this matter together with its international Jewish partners and with other human rights non-governmental organ-isations, as it did prior to the Durban Review Conference in 2009. 

Saying that the UN have yet again allowed themselves to be dragged into a political disgrace, Zionist Fed-eration chief executive Alan Aziz told the Jewish News: The UK and the rest of Europe should not participate and should be strong enough to stand up and say this from the start. 

Making clear Israel's position, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said: Israel regrets that a resolution on an important subject, elimination of racism, has been diverted and politicised by the automatic majority at the UN, by linking it to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (2001) that many states would prefer to forget. 

The Durban Conference of 2001, with its displays of hatred, left us with scars that will not heal quickly.

The Jewish state, he added, would be monitoring preparations for the upcoming meeting and expected participants to reject attempts to once again divert world attention from this dangerous phenomenon [serious manifestations of racism throughout the world] by means of cheap politicisation.