Durban Review Conference Against Racism (UN Conference, Geneva: 20-24 April 2009)

Two Wrongs Equal President was/is Right?
President Barack Obama, fortunately or not, seems to have found that it is harder to change many policies of his predecessor, George W. Bush. The controversial conference against Racism, under UN auspices and currently underway in Geneva, Switzerland, is a case in point. It is not always possible to have dialogue with enemy countries and ideologues, even if one thinks that President Bush was too eager to label other countries "evil."

Today, April 20, was opening day at the 2009 conference, eight years after the US boycotted the one in Durban, South Africa. It did not take long for Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, to attack Israel and its Western supporters for creating a dispossessed people in the Middle East. I did not read his speech myself - I do not read Farsi anyway - but I choose to trust the reporting about what the proverbial attack dog of radical Muslims had to say: that Israel is a racist state. Of course Israel is strong enough to defend itself; that is obviously not the point. In order to move forward in a world that needs to address remaining issues of discrimination including slavery, racism and xenophobia, all those involved need to avoid name-calling and focus on the tasks we have as a global community of human beings. Ahmedinejad chose to blame the West for the holocaust, which is being used to dispossess the Palestinians. We have heard this too many times for such anti-semitic words to be excused. Ahmedinejad has done everything to make the Conference fail, including break his promise to the UN Secretary-General that his remarks would be diplomatic and positive.

There are many reasons why the West or Christians support Israel, and not all of them have to do with the Bible or anti-Islamic alliances. In my opinion, Israel is a most loyal and useful ally in the region. No one has an easy solution for the problem of the Occupied Territories. Even if what Iran's President says about Israel is true, so what? How does he or his supporters and cheerleaders expect to resolve the problem of the West-Bank, Gaza and refugees? Nothing that happened in Geneva today seemed to further the DDPA (Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, 2001). In fact, it seemed to justify President Obama's decision not to send an official delegation to Geneva. No one on November 5th last year, or on January 20, 2009 could have expected the first Black US President to boycott the follow-up conference on Racism (WCAR: World Conference Against Racism) from 2001, the one his predecessor refused to attend or recognize. In fact, a total of eight countries including Canada, Israel and the US, boycotted Durban II (or the Geneval follow-up of April 2009). They all have been vindicated for their boycott of a conference they said would include a heavy dose of Israel-bashing.

So, this leaves me with a question about President Ahmedinejad. Is he so brilliant that he wanted to give the US, Israel and those who boycotted the conference for anti-semitic sympathies, an excuse for having done so? Or was he singing to the radical choir?

I think leaders and citizens of the world who speak as Mahmoud Ahmeddinejad do, cannot make a positive diffrence. In fact,t hey do worse. They cause controversy and war fever, threats and more racism. Worst of all, it allows some Palestinians to believe - as they did under Egypt's President Nasser - that foreign help is all they need to make Israel give in to their demands. Until and unless Palestinians start taking to heart that Israel is their neighbor permanently, and in their hearts wish to co-exist without planning ultimate revenge, no serious peace talks can continue, or bear fruits of peace.

Finally, I would have preferred all countries to have attended this meeting (and I base this partly on a document I will quote in a moment), which would never have prevented them leaving early - as Ahmedinejad was able to make readily available reasons for proving the anti-Israel agenda of some of the attendees of this conference. However, because the detractors and anti-Semites are not a majority, the US and the Western allies of Israel ought to have attended in the name of dialogue and the fact that Presidnet Obama has made overtures to Iran, Cuba and Muslim nations like Turkey.

The document of the Durban Conference from 2001 is available on the UN website, and one might see the successful efforts in the DDPA to use careful, helpful and neutral language, only mentioning Israel when it came to its right to live in peace and security. I still believe in dialogue ... but I am less certain whether what is true for private and individual relationships when negative persons enter one's life, and one has to break such ties, might apply as well to international relations.

Here is the link, and the highlights of the Middle-East-related clause in the DDPA, I mentioned:
http://www.un.org/durbanreview2009/ddpa.shtml. Specifically on this volatile region, the DDPA "expresses concern about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupation and recognizes the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the right to an independent state. It also recognizes the right to security for all countries in the region, including Israel, and calls upon all governments to support the peace process and bring it to an early conclusion; The DDPA recalls that the Holocaust must never be forgotten; Last but not least, the Programme of Action spells out" various strategies that involve international law, non-governmental and civil society groups, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, plus the expected regional and international cooperation.

It was gratifying that the UN Secreatray-General rejected the Iranian President's accusations against Israel on the 20 April 2009 in unequivocal terms. He added, "In this regard, I reminded the President [of Iran] that the UN General Assembly had adopted the resolutions to revoke the equation of Zionism with racism and to reaffirm the historical facts of the Holocaust respectively." (Statement appears in its entirety at: http://www.un.org/durbanreview2009/pr.shtml)

Again, in conclusion, events in 2009 have conspired to allow President Barack Obama to follow closely in the footsteps of President Bush in his stance against attending the Durban Conference Against Racism ... in 2001. Perhaps this is because we do have two sets of standards, be it in family affairs or in international affairs: we are willing to listen to those we know well, but those hwo give us reason to distrust them may never easily sit in the same room with us. While the West proved they can defend their points of view and Israel even in their absence, it does seem dialogue with enemies ... like forgiveness itself ... is easier said than practised.