JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Netherlands may boycott a United Nations anti-racism conference unless anti-Israel statements are removed from draft documents.
Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen made the threat Tuesday during an interview on Dutch radio, The Associated Press reported.
"It seems like the sole intention is to criticize Israel and condemn the West for slavery and its colonial history," Verhagen said, according to the AP.
He added that his country would not make a decision to boycott the conference in Geneva lightly.
"We will take every opportunity at this time to fight racism and discrimination," Verhagen said, "but we will not be used for a propaganda circus."
Israel and Canada already have withdrawn from the U.N. World Conference Against Racism, dubbed Durban II. The conference, scheduled for next year, is a review of the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism that was held in Durban, South Africa, and degenerated into an anti-Semitic hatefest, including a resolution equating Zionism with racism.
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