Arab League to Push Ahead With "Zionism As Racism" at U.N. Conference
CAIRO, Aug 23 (News Agencies) - The Arab League will defy the United States and push ahead with plans to have Israel condemned as racist at next week's United Nations conference on racism in South Africa, it announced Thursday.
Arab League foreign ministers will campaign that Zionism contains a form of racism at the United Nations-sponsored World Conference on Racism Xenophobia and Related Intolerances scheduled to meet in Durban, South Africa between August 31st and September 7th.
A communiqué said that the meeting had confirmed "the need to condemn Israeli practices against the Palestinian people" in the nearly 11-month conflict in the West Bank and Gaza Strip which has left 734 dead, including 566 Palestinians and 146 Israelis.
They made the decision during a special meeting on the Middle East conflict in Cairo on Wednesday, the League said, adding that Arab League chief Amr Mussa would lead the delegation.
The United States and the European Union have rejected any move to include language in the draft documents suggesting that Zionism, the movement that led to the creation of the Jewish state of Israel, is a form of racism.
However, the Arab League's Mussa has said the success of the South African meeting for Arab countries depended on their ability to advance their position.
He and the foreign ministers in the 22-member grouping will meet on the opening day of the meeting to "coordinate their positions," the statement said.
Washington has also threatened to boycott the conference if it condemns Zionism, or demands reparations for the descendants of victims of slavery. The U.S. boycotted the last two racism conferences, in 1978 and 1983, for the same reasons.
The debate over the phrase "Zionism as racism" goes back to a 1975 U.N. resolution that equated Zionism with the kind of racism that bolstered South African apartheid, but the resolution was repealed due to U.S. pressure in 1991.
Human rights organizations have appealed to U.S. President George W. Bush to send a high-ranking delegation to the conference regardless of the language used in its drafting, emphasizing the importance of the American presence at such a significant international event.
