The United States said it saw “no reason” to attend the 2009 UN conference on racism in South Africa amid fears that it will become a platform for criticizing Israel, Middle East Online reports.
The UN’s Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in 2001 in Durban, was condemned by the U.S., Canada and Israel for descending into anti-Semitism.
In my recent inFOCUS interview with Sallai Meridor, the Israeli ambassador to Washington praises the U.S. for taking a stand on similar issues. Other inFOCUS articles on the topic are worth noting. Daniel Doron warns of giving to Israeli charities that support the Durban conference, while Kenneth Marcus discusses the overlap of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism.
