JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

• Tweet
• Share
• Email
• Print
• Google+
• Facebook

U.S. pulling out of ‘Durban II’ conference

February 27, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The Obama administration has decided to boycott the so-called Durban II conference over ant-Semitism concerns.

Multiple sources on a conference call with the White House on Feb. 27 told JTA that the Obama administration had opted not to attend any further preparatory meetings ahead of the planned U.N. conference against racism in Geneva in April.

The conference reprises the 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa, that devolved into an anti-Jewish free-for-all. Canada and Israel have opted not to attend the conference, and some U.S. Jewish groups had been pressing the United States to follow suit.

Preparations for a draft document thus far have seen Iran leading a coterie of nations blocking inclusion of anything that might guarantee Jewish protections -- including mention of the Holocaust -- while inserting draconian language guarding Islam against "insult."

The State Department sent a delegation, including a senior staffer from the American Jewish Committee, to this month's preparatory talks. The delegation's conclusions were that the anti-Israel and anti-Western tendencies were too deeply entrenched to excise.

Now that the United States is withdrawing from the conference, European nations are expected to follow.

Speaking for the White House on the conference call were Samantha Power and James Warlick, who handle international organizations for, respectively, the National Security Council and the State Department; and Jennifer Simon, an adviser to Susan Rice, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations.

• Tweet
• Share
• Email
• Print
• Google+
• Facebook

Click to login and write a letter to the editor or sign up for the Daily Briefing.

This article was made possible by the support of readers like you. Donate to JTA now.

Featured Content