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Racism Conference Tackles Language Reference to Israel
DURBAN, Sept 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Delegates to the U.N. Conference on Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances - in the South African city of Durban - began debating the language of draft declarations Saturday, news agencies reported.
On Saturday, a sideline forum of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) - which started last Tuesday - was set to end its own negotiations on a draft declaration and issue a plan of action to be presented at the conference.
The NGOs' draft urged that Israel be declared "an apartheid, racist and fascist state," and that Palestinians be allowed to use any means available to resist "a colonialist, discriminatory military occupation." The draft also called on all nations to acknowledge that slavery is a crime against humanity and that reparations must be made, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Arduous and protracted preparatory meetings in Geneva hammered such contentious language out of U.N. drafts, but criticism of Israel remained so "offensive" in Washington's eyes that the U.S. decided to boycott the conference and not send Secretary of State Colin Powell.
A mid-level U.S. team dispatched from Washington traveled to Durban in a bid to further dilute the language. On Friday, two U.S. diplomats posted in South Africa occupied U.S. delegation seats at the opening session.
"We are delegates," insisted Judy Moon, spokeswoman for the U.S. delegation, further adding that the manner in which the delegates would participate would depend on "progress" on the language changes.
U.S. President George W. Bush's administration is being criticized for its decision not to send a top-level diplomatic delegation to the conference because it objects to the rhetoric condemning Zionism as a racist ideology.
In an exclusive interview with Abu Dhabi satellite channel, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher said that the Arab world would not push to pass a resolution equating Zionism with racism, but would rather seek condemnation of Israeli aggressions against Palestinians, a topic which dominated the opening day of the U.N. meeting.
Thirteen foreign heads of state from impoverished nations attended the opening session, along with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, but no industrialized country sent high-profile representatives, said AFP.
Israel's treatment of Palestinians dominated the opening day of the U.N. meeting at Durban's International Conference Center. The parallel NGO forum convened at an adjacent cricket ground, where police have had to intervene several times to separate angry Jews and Palestinians.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan told delegates from 153 countries in his opening speech that past victimization of Jews could not excuse Israel's "displacement, occupation, blockade, and now extra-judicial killings" of Palestinians.
"We cannot expect Palestinians to accept this as a reason why the wrongs done to them - displacement, occupation, blockade, and now extra-judicial killings - should be ignored, whatever label one uses to describe them," Annan declared.
For his part, Arafat declared that Israel's "brutality" and "arrogance" were moved by a supremacist mentality of racial discrimination.
"Our tortured Palestinian people, faced with this harsh treatment, with this settler colonization and racial discrimination, look to this conference to stand by us, to stand by justice, by international legitimacy which is now being trodden upon by the Israeli government, the objective of that government being to deprive our people, to force us to our knees in order to continue and perpetrate occupation and racial discrimination," he said.
The conference is set to run through September 7th.
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