WASHINGTON, April 18, 2009
U.S. To Boycott Anti-Racism Conference
Tensions Over U.N. Meeting Swell As Muslim Nations Seek To Condemn Israel, Install Curbs To Free Speech
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Spokesman Robert Wood said Saturday that despite improvements from an earlier draft, the changes in the final text do not address U.S. concerns about anti-Israel and anti-Western bias. The administration had lobbied hard for more revisions so that it could participate.
Israel and Canada have already said they will not attend over concerns about a possible repeat of verbal attacks on the Jewish state.
The five-day meeting, being held in Geneva starting Monday, is intended to evaluate progress toward goals set by the first such conference which met in 2001.
That meeting, which ended four days before 9/11, was dominated by quarrels over the Middle East and the legacy of slavery. The United States and Israel walked out midway through the conference over a draft resolution that singled out Israel for criticism and which likened Zionism - the movement to establish a Jewish state in the Holy Land - to racism.
Those references were removed from the final declaration, though it did cite "the plight of the Palestinians" as an issue.
Many of the same issues - such as criticism of Israel - are now re-emerging in this latest meeting of the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.
The European Union had not decided Friday whether to attend the meeting or boycott it over Islamic nations' demands to condemn Israel and call for a ban on defaming religion.
"We have made clear ... that we cannot tolerate it if this anti-racism conference is turned into an accusatory event, a one-sided event against the state of Israel," said Thomas Steg, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - who has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel and denied the Holocaust - plans to speak Monday as the conference opens.
Some sticking points remained Friday that could unravel the conference, such as Iran's objection to a paragraph stating that the Holocaust must never be forgotten.
Direct references to Israel and to defamation of religion have been dropped from the draft document for this year's conference, but there is pressure from Muslim countries to reinsert them.
Many Muslim nations want curbs to free speech to prevent insults to Islam they say have proliferated since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Riots erupted across the Muslim world after a Danish newspaper published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005.
Last week the United States said it remained concerned about "restrictions on freedom of expression that could result from some of the document's language related to 'incitement' to religious hatred."
"There are still issues which remain and these are being discussed," said U.N. spokesman Ramu Damodaran.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the head of the Organization of The Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, will take part in the meeting's opening. Officials from 103 states have confirmed their participation, according to the U.N.
Jewish and Muslim lobby groups, as well as human rights groups, are prepared to turn out en masse. More than 2,500 participants of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were expected to be observers, the U.N. said, though only a half-dozen NGOs are allowed to speak at the conference itself.
Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel is among the many prominent defenders of Israel who will be present.
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Add a Comment See all 78 Comments
- Speaking of racism, how can we judge others. When the American people are still divided? Just read on any given day the comments on this CBS site. It speaks for itself.....
- Reply to this comment
- Why just roll it back to the pre-1967 borders?
Why not roll it back to the pre-1947 borders, when Palestine comprised over 87% of the land?
Posted by hungry1968-15 at 3:13 PM : Apr 19, 2009
Why not call it what it was originally named before the Romans changed it.......ISRAEL - Reply to this comment
- Why just roll it back to the pre-1967 borders?
Why not roll it back to the pre-1947 borders, when Palestine comprised over 87% of the land?
Posted by hungry1968-15 at 3:13 PM : Apr 19, 2009
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Great logic there Ungry !
Why not roll back time and give Mexico back the Southwest ?
How about giving Germany back the Sudetenland and some of the land lost in WW2 ?
Why not give Russia back the Baltic states and the remains of the Soviet Empire ? - Reply to this comment
- if the apartheid system and the colonialization of palestinian lands isn't racist, then what is?
Posted by karlimhof at 1:16 AM : Apr 20, 2009
Saudi Arabia...where you cannot worship any other religion other than Islam
where you cannot build another place of worship other than a mosque
Apartheid ?...than why are the 1.5 million Arabs in Israel citizens that can vote and have more rights than Arabs in Arab countrys ?
Your constant usage of "apartheid" is like a magician telling you over and over that the duck is really a fish. After a while you have dopes on the internet believing it because their too damn lazy to investigate the claim. - Reply to this comment
- "Was one of those "key moments" Israel's voluntary give back of the land they TOOK BY FORCE from the Arabs? Posted by hungry1968-15
Uh, yeah ... That's what happens when all of your neighbors conspire to wipe you out - you kick the **** out of them and then do to them which they were planning to do to you.
The tables would have been reversed had the Arabs not been such poor soldiers. - Reply to this comment
- Euh, sorry that's wrong too. It was of course the founding of Israel in the midst of the Arab world that caused this 60 year upheaval.
Posted by ownofminerva at 12:51 PM : Apr 19, 2009
You are saying that Israel never existed before 1948? My My
I guess that Israel was invented by the European and American peoples to 'cheat' the Arabs out of 'their land. wow.. - Reply to this comment
- I mean as far as the Palestinians were concerned. Do you really have any problem with the Jordanian adminstration of the West Bank?
Posted by U-R-So-Wrong at 1:26 PM : Apr 19, 2009
Why should the Jordanians administer it, when the Palestinians administered it PEACEFULLY for over 400 years, until the zionists arrived? - Reply to this comment
- it worked all right when the West Bank was part of Jordan. Anyone on this website outraged about those 20 years 1948-1967? Or about how much of Palestine we already call "Jordan"? If we roll-back the borders pre-1967 there's no Palestine on that map either.
Posted by U-R-So-Wrong at 1:06 PM : Apr 19, 2009
Why just roll it back to the pre-1967 borders?
Why not roll it back to the pre-1947 borders, when Palestine comprised over 87% of the land?
http://www.passia.org/palestine_facts/MAPS/Zionist_and_Palestinian_landownership.htm - Reply to this comment
- Sorry Phil, but it was the Arabs who formented the situation in the last 41 years.
There were 6 key moments when Israel put everything on the table and the Palistinians with prodding from their brothers regected it.
and if you want to accuse someone of being racist than try Saudi Arabia for starters. Why no comments from you about them ?
Try wearing a cross in Mecca or Medina !
Posted by earth562 at 12:08 PM : Apr 19, 2009
Was one of those "key moments" Israel's voluntary give back of the land they TOOK BY FORCE from the Arabs? - Reply to this comment
- "it worked all right when the West Bank was part of Jordan"
really, is that why we had a couple of wars between 1948 and 1967? - Reply to this comment
- "Sorry Phil, but it was the Arabs who formented the situation in the last 41 years.
There were 6 key moments when Israel put everything on the table and the Palistinians with prodding from their brothers regected it. "
Euh, sorry that's wrong too. It was of course the founding of Israel in the midst of the Arab world that caused this 60 year upheaval.
Also, israel has NEVER put anything on the table that can be anywhere near called a sustainable state for the palestinians. Once or twice they they offered something they knew arafat would reject because it was so pathetic. Israeli negotiators themselves have admitted that much. Little chuncks of land here and there in the middle of israeli settlements and israeli-only-roads atc is NOT A VIALBLE STATE. - Reply to this comment
- "Muslims have hijacked this event year after year '
last conference was in 2001. This is the 4th one in 50 years.
not participating is a sad acknowledgement of the triumph of hurt pride over our concerns about racism and its victims. - Reply to this comment
- http://owlminerva.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/a-few-thoughts-on-dunbar-ii-and-the-clash-of-civilizations/
- Reply to this comment
- After more than 41 years of occupation the only reason for it to go on is no other than pure and raw racism.
Posted by PhilistineTheArtLover at 9:06 AM : Apr 19, 2009
Sorry Phil, but it was the Arabs who formented the situation in the last 41 years.
There were 6 key moments when Israel put everything on the table and the Palistinians with prodding from their brothers regected it.
and if you want to accuse someone of being racist than try Saudi Arabia for starters. Why no comments from you about them ?
Try wearing a cross in Mecca or Medina ! - Reply to this comment
- Maybe the Right_Wing_Extremist could explain why Obama got 65% of the jewish vote in November?
Seems a little funny to me that the jews would vote for someone that is anti-Israel.
Posted by hungry1968-15 at 11:29 AM : Apr 19, 2009
There are many lambs in every field - Reply to this comment
- Radical Jewish-Isaelis are racists when it comes to their open hatred towards non-Jewish Arabs and Muslims. The radical Israelis are as much a racist anti-Semitic group as are radical non-Jewish Arabs and Muslims.
Posted by credibility2 at 11:58 AM : Apr 19, 2009
Gee , with all the love from Arabs and Muslims from around the world I just can't understand why some Jews and Israelis don't reciprocate ?
I need to find those peace march videos of Arabs marching in the streets......give me some time...a long time and I'll get back - Reply to this comment
- Radical Jewish-Isaelis are racists when it comes to their open hatred towards non-Jewish Arabs and Muslims. The radical Israelis are as much a racist anti-Semitic group as are radical non-Jewish Arabs and Muslims.
- Reply to this comment
- A great decision by the United States.In this Orwellian world thhis conference allegedly on racism is actually a propaganda ploy by some of the most intolerent and violence prone countries that have ever existed.
- Reply to this comment
- -You Muslims should be cheering on Obama. He's totally anti-Israel and so is most of his staff. See the church he went to for 20 years. It is one of the most anti-Israel churches in America that gave the anti-semite Louis Farakan, a muslim leader in America, a lifetime achievement award.
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Posted by Right_Wing_Extremist
Yeah, Obama is so anti-Israel that he's skipping a racism conference at the UN that he wants to go to because they will condemn Israel unfairly. Wow. How anti-Israel of him.
Dumba$$.
I know you far right wng nut jobs have a seething, irrational hatred of Obama, but can you at least not ignore reality. I know Obama isn't doing any of the horrible tihngs you nutjobs predicted, but ignoring what he actually does and cotinuing to fantasize all this bad stuff that isn't actually happening is making you all look like idiots.
Posted by sabre1111 at 9:26 AM : Apr 19, 2009
Maybe the Right_Wing_Extremist could explain why Obama got 65% of the jewish vote in November?
Seems a little funny to me that the jews would vote for someone that is anti-Israel. - Reply to this comment
- I think a peaceful nuclear explosion over IRAN would be bring a nice pleasant SunShine to their country. Thats my religion.
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Posted by demslie2all
And neocons wonder why Iran wants nukes too. But you gotta love 'cons. A country doesn't do what we think they should? Nuke 'em. A country isn't just like ours? Nuke 'em. Someone accidentally steps on your shoe? Nuke 'em! Good thing one of you nutjobs isn't president, with your casual use of nukes - like you are reaching for a piece of gum, no second thoughts about it from you.
Scary. - Reply to this comment
The road ahead in Afghanistan, and the crucial decision Obama faces.
