Later this month, the United Nations Human Rights Council will be sponsoring a conference in New York City, Durban III: World Conference Against Racism…but this conference will be promoting intolerance and racism as opposed to battling it.
The first Durban conference held in 2001 in South Africa was nothing more than a conference designed to unfairly attack Israel (it was here that the ridiculous “Israel is an Apartheid State” claim was first heard). At the second Durban conference (which was boycotted by Israel, the U.S., Canada, Germany, Italy, and several other countries), Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led off the conference with a speech that questioned the veracity of the Holocaust, and called for the annihilation of the State of Israel. To their credit, ministers of the European Union walked out of the room during his speech, in protest of the hate-filled racism the Iranian President was promoting. At Durban III, Israel, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Australia, and the Czech Republic have all stated that they will boycott.
Please visit www.durban3nyc.com to watch an excellent four minute video and to learn more about this history of the Durban conferences, and what you can do to show your displeasure. You can write a letter to the Courier Journal, to your representatives in Congress, to the United Nations Secretary General, or you can even attend a counter demonstration being held at U.N. Headquarters in New York on September 21st at 12:00.