AJC leader urges Israel to give 'Durban 2' conference a chance

The "Durban 2" anti-racism conference can still be salvaged, despite recent decisions by Israel and Canada to boycott the gathering, according to David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

Visiting Israel as part of his organization's Board Of Governors' mission, Harris told Haaretz that "we can't afford to declare 'Durban 2' lost without more focus on diplomacy, especially toward the European Union countries and others influenced by them."

Following Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's announcement two weeks ago that Israel would not participate in the United Nation's follow-up Conference against Racism, unless it was made clear that the event would not become a platform for Israel-bashing, there has been a great deal of indecision among international Jewish organizations as to how to deal with "Durban 2."

The first Durban Conference, in 2001, quickly descended into a festival of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity, causing the withdrawal of Israel and the United States from the parley. Over the last few months there has been a great deal of discussion between Israel, western governments, the Jewish Agency and other Jewish organizations on how to prepare for the follow-up conference, slated to take place some time in early 2009.

The fact that the conference is to be organized by the UN Human Rights Council, chaired by Libya, with Cuba as vice-chair, and that its two preparatory meetings are scheduled for Pesach and Yom Kippur, gave little reassurance that the next conference, whose venue has yet to be decided, will be any different from 2001.

A month ago, Canada announced it wasn't going to participate in next year's event, and Israel followed suit soon after.

The AJC's Harris said that it is still "important to focus the attention of world leaders that if this will be a replay of the first Durban Conference, it will undermine the international fight against racism and embarrass the United Nations."

He pointed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's statement of three weeks ago that France will also not participate in the conference if it is "a repetition of the excesses and abuses of 2001."

"France will be very important," says Harris, "since from July, it will assume the presidency of EU and if it decides to pull out of the conference, there is a chance that the rest of the EU countries will. This will be a problem for those countries on the Human Rights Council, like Libya, Syria, Cuba and Zimbabwe. They don't want to have a conference where they will just look at each other. They need the EU's legitimacy, which is important also for other countries."

In Harris' opinion, there is still a chance of reaching an agreement on what issues should not be allowed to be aired at the conference.

Other Jewish organizations have differing views. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told Haaretz two weeks ago: "We should learn from what happened at the previous Durban Conference. Jewish organizations shouldn't even be there. There are enough ways to fight this."

	Pro-Palestinian protestors marching through Durban during a UN conference on racism in 2001. (AP)