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DURBAN CONFERENCE THREAT TO ISRAEL Background U.N. member states and representatives of Non Governmental Organizations will convene in Durban, South Africa, from August 31st to September 7th, for the Third U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), under the aegis of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs. Mary Robinson. The first two conferences took place in 1978 and 1983. The WCAR will be preceded by a Student Summit (August 24), an NGO Conference (August 29 and 30th) and the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) will convene parallel to the WCAR (on September 2nd). Some 12,000 delegates are expected to attend. The WCAR will produce two documents: a declaration and a plan of Action. The call for the WCAR came in 1997 when the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of such a conference. Four regional Preparatory Conferences (Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa) met in order to draft resolutions for the WCAR and NGO conferences. Inasmuch there were unresolved differences regarding the wording of many draft resolutions (many dealing with Israel, Zionism, and anti-Semitism), a Second Preparatory Conference, which met from May17th to June 1st , which could not resolve these differences, entrusted a committee of 21 regional representatives (five from each of the four regions, with Europe now split into Eastern and Western), the "Third Preparatory Conference", to revise the draft resolutions in the aim of arriving at an agreed-upon text. The Third Preparatory Conference has convened in Geneva on July 31st and will continue to hold meetings till August 10th . Israel has not participated in Preparatory Conferences as one of the regional representatives. However representatives of the Government (Deputy Minister Melchior and Ambassador Levy) are attending sessions. Likewise a number of Jewish NGOs are currently in Geneva. It is hoped that many of the differences will be resolved before the Durban conference. The Danger to Israel The danger to Israel posed by the WCAR is that many of the draft resolutions contain clauses which Condemn Israel and Zionism for racist practices, crimes against humanity Trivialize the Holocaust as a unique occurrence (by using it in the plural and with lower case) Debase the meaning of anti-Semitism (by either not referring to it, or by adding to it 'Zionist practices against Semitic peoples') Condemn Israel's policy in the Territories While many manifestations of prejudice, discrimination, and social injustice are mentioned generically in the draft documents (racism, transatlantic slavery, discrimination against women, migrants, even against carriers of HIV), Israel is practically the only country singled out for censure, and special sections are devoted to the "suffering of the Palestinians." These resolutions (though, so far, not specifically stating that Zionism equals Racism) recall the specter of the 1975 General Assembly "Zionism equals Racism" resolution, which was finally repealed in 1991, and which caused great damage to Israel. Moreover, no mention is made of Palestinian and Arab human rights violations, the exploitation of women, children, terrorism, the liquidation of minorities, etc. that are rampant in Arab countries Should the contestable language of these resolutions be adopted by the WCAR, the result would be de-legitimization of Israel, and a major setback for the Jewish People.
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