Fighting the Blight of Durban

[The week of July 26], Ronald S. Lauder, former US ambassador to Austria and currently president of the World Jewish Congress, sent an open letter to US President Joe Biden setting out his concerns about rising antisemitism. "Recently, American Jews have witnessed something we never thought we would see in this country," he wrote; "...a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke cannot walk down an American street without fear of violence. Jews have been attacked by pro-Palestinian mobs in Los Angeles, New York and other cities. Antisemitic incidents have more than doubled in the past year. Hate crimes against Jews in America are twice as high as crimes against any other religious group".

In Britain, the Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors antisemitism and provides security for the Jewish community, reports that racist attacks against Jews in May this year "surpassed anything  we have seen before", with more antisemitic incidents than in any single month since records began in 1986. In London, a convoy of vehicles drove through Jewish areas brandishing Palestinian flags and screaming at passers-by to kill Jews and rape their daughters. According to the UK charity Campaign Against Antisemitism, recent examples of hostility include physical beatings and vandalism, chants and placards at rallies, social media abuse and threats to Jewish children at schools and universities.

Similar antisemitic attacks have been on the increase around the world from Buenos Aires to Brussels. In a speech this week Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said: "Antisemitism has reached a peak that has not been seen since World War II".

In September we will also witness the next iteration of the UN's infamous 20-year-old showpiece vendetta against Israel: Durban IV, a one-day event at the heads-of-state and government level during the UN General Assembly.

This proceeding marks the anniversary of the Durban Declaration made at the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia and Intolerance. Shocking even for this corrupt and deeply flawed world body, the conference was itself characterised by racism, discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance — the direct opposite of its declared purpose. In one hate-filled speech after another, Israel was falsely accused of racism, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide.

Durban has been described by the non-governmental organisation UN Watch as "the worst international manifestation of antisemitism in the post-war period". The conference and subsequent linked events in 2009 and 2011 have served to legitimise Jew-hate everywhere, with antisemitic material distributed and Holocaust denial a prominent feature. Israel was the only country singled out as racist in the closing declaration. Durban II in 2009 was planned under the chairmanship of Colonel Muammar Gadaffi's Libyan regime; in the opening speech, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad asserted that "World Zionism personifies racism". He claimed the Holocaust was an "ambiguous and dubious question" and a "pretext" for oppressing Palestinians.

Durban IV will re-energise this shameful process. The UN General Assembly draft resolution calls on member states to "reaffirm the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted in 2001... and reaffirm our commitment to its full and effective implementation". In other words, an orgy of Jew-hate.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17601/durban-un-israel