Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United Nations for the General Assembly, Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., is calling on member states to boycott a Sept. 28 event marking the 25th anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.
The U.N. General Assembly is scheduled to hold the high-level meeting at its New York headquarters during the 81st session. The event is intended to promote the “full and effective implementation” of the Durban Declaration, which the U.N. describes as a framework for combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
Danon said the original 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, became a platform for Jew-hatred and attacks on Israel.
“In two weeks, the United Nations will mark 25 years since the Durban Conference, an event that was supposed to fight racism but instead became a platform for antisemitism and the demonization of Israel,” Danon stated.
“There is no reason to celebrate this toxic legacy,” he said. “Countries that genuinely oppose racism and antisemitism should do the right thing and boycott this event.”
The Sept. 28 meeting is scheduled to run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and include plenary sessions, an interactive panel discussion and a general debate. Its theme is “Mobilizing global public support for the full and effective implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.”
The 2001 conference drew criticism from Israel, the United States and Jewish organizations, particularly over antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric at a parallel nongovernmental-organization forum.
A subsequent U.S. State Department report to Congress said anti-Israel rhetoric at the conference was “pervasive” and cited South Africa’s then-deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, as acknowledging that the NGO forum had been “hijacked” by participants with an anti-Israel agenda and turned into an antisemitic event.
Then-U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell announced the U.S. withdrawal from the conference on Sept. 3, 2001, saying its declarations contained “hateful language,” revived the discredited “Zionism equals racism” formulation, suggested that apartheid existed in Israel and singled out Israel for condemnation.
The United States subsequently declined to participate in other Durban-related gatherings. At the 20th-anniversary commemoration in 2021, 36 countries and Israel refused to participate, according to the American Jewish Committee.
The Anti-Defamation League has stated that the 2001 conference and the 2009 Durban Review Conference were “marred by incidents and rhetoric that normalized antisemitism and recast anti-Zionism as human rights advocacy.”
