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Delegates Try to "Salvage" Racism Conference
DURBAN, South Africa, Sept 4 (News Agencies) - Key delegates at a global racism conference held a marathon meeting overnight to produce a new text on the Middle East after Israel and the United States pulled out over harsh language criticizing the Jewish state's treatment of Palestinians.
Along with the United States, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres announced Monday his country's pullout from the Durban meeting over draft resolutions backed by Arab and Muslim countries condemning Israel's policy towards the Palestinians in vitriolic terms.
The United States and Israel boycotted the first two conferences, in 1978 and 1983, for the same reason.
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the president of the U.N. World Conference Against Racism being held in Durban, met first with Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, president of the council of the European Union, and Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa, a source close to the talks told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The aim was to produce a preliminary text and then bring in a small group of other delegates. It was not immediately clear whether the others had taken part in the meeting from midnight (2200 GMT Monday) to 10:00 am (0800 GMT).
Earlier drafts produced by government delegations here included references to "a new kind of apartheid", practiced by Israel, accusing it of "a crime against humanity", and mentioning "racist practices of Zionism".
Dlamini-Zuma, who opened the daily plenary session at 10:30 am, said, to applause: "I think it is unfortunate that the two countries left, and I think that in the long run they will be the losers."
"I'm quite sure that at the end of the conference we will have a document which will be the product of tolerance."
Mary Robinson, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights and secretary general of the conference, told the delegates: "Negotiations haven't been easy."
"The issues we're grappling with are among the most sensitive and difficult the international community and the United Nations have to face," she said.
"There has been progress here - I would say significant progress."
Canada meanwhile announced it was resolved to remain at the conference "unless it becomes clear to us that a satisfactory outcome is impossible," the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said.
"We will continue the dialogue unless it becomes clear to us that a satisfactory outcome is impossible; the Conference still has time to run," the department said in a statement citing Hedy Fry, secretary of state for multiculturalism, who is heading the Canadian delegation in Durban.
Meanwhile, Israeli politicians and the media hailed their country's decision to quit the Conference, but on the streets opinion was divided and confused.
Sharon H., a Tel Aviv environmentalist, said she wished Israel had remained in Durban to "fight the good fight."
Like many of those interviewed, including Palestinians, she was skeptical about the joint withdrawal, claiming that the U.S. government "used Israel as a lame excuse, while the U.S. delegation left for its own reasons."
She was referring to another controversial resolution on the table - a demand for compensation from Western countries for African slavery, which has sparked controversy in the United States.
Ido, a student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said: "In truth I don't care about the conference. It has no bearing, when Palestinians are blowing themselves up. Before every war there is this kind of slandering."
Earlier Tuesday, a Palestinian blew himself up near a west Jerusalem school, injuring 13 people in the latest incident in the 11-month uprising against Israeli occupation.
Israelis were shocked in particular by Sunday's resolution by thousands of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the fringe of the Durban conference accusing Israel of "racist crimes, including war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing ... and state terrorism against the Palestinian people."
For a storekeeper who has joint British and Israeli citizenship but conceals the latter when abroad, it showed that "the world stands against us."
"As usual, the Jewish people are alone, entrenched in a political bunker," the popular daily
Maariv commented.
The daily carried an editorial entitled "The Protocols of the Elders of Durban" in reference to "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", a classic of anti-Semitic writing used by the Nazis and others to justify their actions.
"Bloodbaths and pogroms have also followed decisions made in such conferences ... After what happened in Durban, the Jews and the Israelis have become legitimate targets, here and all over the world,"
Maariv said
The more left-leaning Haaretz daily said the conference and Monday's joint withdrawal showed that "Israel was more dependent than ever on the U.S."
"There was nothing new at Durban. Like every vote in the U.N. General Assembly, the World Conference Against Racism isolated Israel, with only the great U.S. raising a finger on Israel's behalf," the newspaper said in a front-page analysis.
Most Israeli politicians supported the delegation pullout. Left-wing opposition leader Yossi Sarid called it "the first decision made by [prime minister] Ariel Sharon's government that I agree with."
Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior told CNN television, "The Arab nations have tried to turn this conflict into a racial one not territorial, and thus make Israel into the devil of the world."
Criticism of the decision was rare across the political spectrum, with Labor arch-dove Yossi Beilin and former right-wing Likud prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in agreement.
Beilin said "it was a mistake to quit the battle", while Sharon's rival Netanyahu argued that the Jewish state "should have fought the battle on the stage of international public opinion."
The Palestinian owner of a stall in Jerusalem's walled Old City selling wood sculptures depicting scenes from the New Testament said, "No side is winning, both are losing as long as this war continues. Yes, the resolutions are true, but this is a war."
Gulf newspapers Tuesday described the withdrawal as a resounding slap in the face for the "U.S.-Zionist lobby."
"What happened in Durban was an international trial of Zionism," Saudi daily Al-Riyadh said. "The voices of non-governmental organizations prevailed over U.S. pressure, the pliability of the United Nations and the negative attitude of Arabs."
The paper, which like the rest of the Saudi press reflects the official point of view, said that, "management of the world according to the U.S. model no longer fools people."
Al-Medina, hailing the "isolation of the United States and Israel," said the conference revealed an "unprecedented surge of international solidarity" with the Palestinians.
"Pressure has not stopped the denunciation of Israel's actions and the US bias towards it," it said.
Al-Jazira, also of Saudi Arabia, blasted Washington for "being happy not only to stand by watching violence, but also to give pretexts to Israel to continue its inhumane actions" against the Palestinians.
For Oman's Al-Watan, the two countries' withdrawal was "the biggest slap in the face ever received by the U.S.-Zionist lobby."
In the United Arab Emirates, Al-Bayan said the conference was a "defeat for the flagrant U.S. bias towards the Jewish state."
"It is a blow for the Israeli entity, which has laid bare its racism and dispelled the image it has given itself for tens of years as a victim of racism," the Dubai-based paper said.
The conference started on August 31st and is due to close Friday, but agreement on language in a final declaration and program of action is moving at snail's pace.
"Midway through [the conference], Working Group 1 has adopted 12 paragraphs contained in the draft declaration," conference spokeswoman Sue Markham noted dryly during her daily briefing on Monday.
The draft declaration contains 142 paragraphs.
The group working on the draft program of action, which contains 259 paragraphs, had adopted five, and one element of a sixth, at that point.
Delegates meeting in working groups were meanwhile discussing such subjects as demands for reparations for slavery, the status of low-caste Dalits, discrimination against migrants, women, Roma, indigenous people, discrimination because of HIV/AIDS, refugees and victims of racist speech spread by the Internet.
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