Israel Matzav

Canada to boycott Durban III

Once upon a time, the United States could be counted on for moral clarity and to act as the World's conscience. With President Obama's attack on American exceptionalism, those days are now gone, and the burden of acting as the World's moral compass has fallen to other countries. Take Canada, for instance.

On Thursday, the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper did what any morally sensitive country ought to have done, but which no other country did: The Canadian government announced that it will not participate in Durban III, the 10th anniversary commemoration of the violently anti-Semitic Durban conference, to be held alongside the UN General Assembly meeting in September 2011 in New York.

Minister Jason Kenney said Canada has lost faith in the Durban process, a conference that began in 2001 to develop strategies to defeat racism.

"Canada is clearly committed to the fight against racism, but the Durban process commemorates an agenda that actually promotes racism rather than combats it."

Next year's event commemorates the 10th anniversary of the initial Durban conference that saw the United States walk out in protest over texts branding Israel as a racist and apartheid state.

The initial conference, which ended days before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States, produced the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.

The 62-page document raises 122 "general issues," among them "concern about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupation." It "recognizes the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the right to an independent state."

But most offensive to Canada and several other countries were speeches laced with anti-Israeli rhetoric. Canada led a boycott of Durban II in Geneva last year, where Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad railed against the Jewish state.

Is there any other country willing to stand up for moral principle? Speak now, and don't wait until 48 hours before the 'conference' is scheduled to take place.

Labels: 9/11, Canada, Durban conference, Durban III, moral conscience, New York City, Stephen Harper

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:59 AM