 |
B'nai B'rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin (R) said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic and anti-Israel speech on Monday “left little doubt about what the conference had become."
|
|
|
GENEVA (EJP)---Human rights Jewish organization B’nai B’rith International (BBI) is “highly disappointed but not surprised,” that more than 100 nations attending the Durban II Racism Conference in Geneva overwhelmingly voted to approve a final declaration “that is flawed and offensive.”
“In a replay of the 2001 original United Nations World Conference against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Israel is again the only nation singled out, BBI said Wednesday in a statement.
“We condemn this rubber stamp document in the strongest terms possible,” said Richard D. Heideman, B’nai B’rith Honorary President and head of the BBI delegation in Geneva.
“The adoption of this document shows nothing has changed since 2001, no lessons have been learned and the hope for a unified approach to fighting racism and intolerance around the world will again go unfulfilled.”
The 2009 declaration reaffirms the conclusions from the original Durban conference in 2001 which stated that Palestinians are subject to Israeli “racism.”
Several countries boycotted or withdrew from the conference, including Israel, Canada, the United States, Italy, Germany, Australia, Holland, New Zealand, the Czech Republic and Poland.
According to the human rights group, “Libya helped to seal the negative outcome of the conference” as as the chair of the conference, “despite a long history of supporting terrorism and violating human rights”.
BBI Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic and anti-Israel speech on Monday “left little doubt about what the conference had become."
The representatives of 23 European Union nations and others walked out during Ahmadinejad speech, in which he said that the foundation of the state of Israel rendered “an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering” in order “to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine.”
“The approval of the declaration by acclamation allows member states to hide behind a wall of unanimity, moving the spotlight away from those states that have become complicit in promoting hatred," Mariaschin said.