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U.S. May Skip Racism Summit Over "Zionism" And Reparations
WASHINGTON, July 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The White House said Friday that the United States will shun an August U.N. conference on racism if the agenda includes a measure equating Zionism to racism and talk of reparations for slavery and colonialism.
President George W. Bush "is sending a signal: the conference should not equate Zionism with racism" or take up the reparations matter, said his spokesman, Ari Fleischer. "And if they do, the United States will not go."
Organizers "risk turning what could be a productive conference to combat racism into a conference of Third World nations that take positions that are far out of synch with the American mainstream," he cautioned.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said Friday it was "singularly inappropriate" to reopen the issue in the context of the conference which is to be held in Durban, South Africa, from August 31st to September 7th.
It would "undoubtedly cause hurt" and "a very deep sense of dismay," she told a news conference, adding she had raised the issue during recent talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"He fully understands, because I said it to him very expressly, that if there's an attempt to revive the idea of Zionism as racism we will not have a successful conference in Durban," she told reporters.
The clash over the wording of the conference's draft declaration stems from a 1975 U.N. resolution which declared that "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination" in light of previous declarations from other conferences equating the "racist regime in occupied Palestine" with South African apartheid.
The resolution was rescinded in 1991, but some Arab groups insist that the phrasing be revised for this year's conference, the Washington Post reported.
Negotiations on a draft declaration and program of action for adoption at the end of the conference resume in Geneva Monday and are set to run until August 10th.
Issues surrounding the Arab-Israeli conflict, plus African demands for reparations to be paid by countries that benefited from the slave trade and colonialism have proved divisive.
Rabbi Marvin Hire, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center of Los Angeles, was quoted by the Washington Post as saying, "The Arab bloc really wants to hijack the conference.
"I'm afraid the entire conference is going to be just a lot of shouting that has nothing to do with issues today because of the frustration over what's going on in the Middle East."
Washington did not attend two previous U.N. racism conferences, in 1978 and 1983 because of the Zionism issue.
"The United States stands on the side of what is right, and the United States stands on the side of principle. The United States will stand on the side of making certain that a variety of Third World nations do not hijack a conference that should be aimed at combating racism," said Fleischer.
However, several groups are imploring the U.S. to participate in spite of the possibility that the conference would be "hijacked". International groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and domestic U.S. organizations such as the NAACP, the National Urban League and the Leadership Council of Civil Rights, are urging Bush to send a delegation, the Washington Post reported.
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