Durban II

I am in Geneva at the Durban Review Conference standing up for Israel against bigotry.

Anti-Israel Demonstrators at the first Durban Conference on racism.
In 2001, just days before the 9/11 attacks, the UN sponsored the first Durban Conference. Instead of fighting racial discrimination, Durban only fueled and fed it. The Crusaders (America) and the Zionists (Israel) were charged with racism, slavery, and colonialism.

This despite the fact charges were being levied by Arab countries guilty of blatant discrimination. No mention was made during the conference of the genocide in Rwanda or Iraq or the gassing of the Kurds; no condemnation was levied against Iran’s use of children as mine-sweepers during the Iran-Iraq War; nor was there a mention of the repressive regime in Saudi Arabia.

Jews are banned from setting a foot on the soil in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Middle East. It is no wonder that Durban deteriorated into an anti-Semitic hate fest against Israel.

The U.S. and Israel exited the proceedings in South Africa in protest while conference goers took to the streets to parade vile posters which portrayed the Jews as having fangs dripping with blood. Following 9/11, the world media refused to call the events of that infamous day what they were: bigotry against the Americans (Crusaders).

The war on terror is, in fact, not a war against terror or against an ideology; it is a war against bigotry and racism. This war has never really been fought.

Even entertaining the willingness to debate the right of the Jewish people to exist is beyond comprehension. The Holy Grail of understanding is that racism and bigotry are the soil in which the virus of terror grows. This is a war that cannot be won unless the root of racism is exposed.

The leaders of the countries which will participate in the Durban Review Conference are bigots and truly believe the diabolical lies quoted by Hitler from Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are true. This is the reason mosques, mullahs and madrassas are allowed to teach that Jews are descendants of monkeys and pigs; all wars are caused by the Jews; the Jews invented AIDS; and the Zionists attacked America on 9/11 and blamed the Arabs.

It is believed there is a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world, and that the Jews control the media and banks. Some believe Jews drink the blood of non-Jews and also use their blood to make matzo – or the “blood-libel” myth.

Ahmadinejad has become the poster boy for racial discrimination. He smiles, while watching his nuclear centrifuges on a fast-forward track, and says he likes Jews; he just hates Zionists and denies the Holocaust. His rhetoric did not appear to inspire the millions of Zionists living in Israel who are aware that one-third of the Jewish race was exterminated during the Holocaust – including five million adults and almost one million children.

America thought she was exempt from terror until 9/11, and still resists today acknowledging that she was attacked for being a Christian nation (Crusaders.)

When the UN hosted a specially-convened session of the 43rd General Assembly in December 1988 for PLO chief Yasser Arafat, I was the first journalist to challenge him to denounce the PLO racist covenant which calls for the destruction of the Jewish people.

America’s first black president has a golden opportunity, after having been wined and dined by European heads of state. He could be a twenty-first century Abraham Lincoln and mobilize the EU against participating in the Durban Review Conference by simply making a public appeal to them. If the EU agreed not to attend the event, it would be a major blow against racism and bigotry.

Your ambassador to Jerusalem,

Mike Evans
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Iran's leader sparks Western walkout at UN meeting
Raw Video: Iran's leader sparks Western walkout Play Video AP – Raw Video: Iran's leader sparks Western walkout

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* U.S., Israel lead U.N. racism summit boycott Play Video Video:U.S., Israel lead U.N. racism summit boycott AP
* AP Top Stories Play Video Video:AP Top Stories AP

UN security officers arrest a demonstrator who threw a clown;s false nose at AP – UN security officers arrest a demonstrator who threw a clown;s false nose at Iranian President Mahmoud …
By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 10 mins ago

GENEVA – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the West of using the Holocaust as a "pretext" for aggression against Palestinians, prompting European diplomats to walk out Monday from a speech disrupted by jeering protesters in rainbow wigs tossing red clown noses at the hardline leader.


A U.N. racism conference on the eve of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day disintegrated into chaos moments after Ahmadinejad became the first government official to take the floor. Two protesters in wigs tossed the noses at Ahmadinejad as he recited a Muslim prayer to begin his speech.


A Jewish student group from France later took credit for causing the disturbance, saying members were trying to convey "the masquerade that this conference represents."

Ahmadinejad restarted his talk and delivered a speech that lasted more than a half-hour, saying the United States and Europe had helped establish Israel after World War II at the expense of Palestinians.


"They resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering," he said.


That prompted a walkout by some 40 diplomats from Britain and France and other European countries that had threatened to leave the conference if it descended into anti-Semitism or other rhetoric harshly critical of Israel, which marred the U.N.'s last racism gathering eight years ago in South Africa.


The United States and eight other Western countries were already boycotting the event because of concerns about its fairness.


Ahmadinejad went on to accuse Israel of being the "most cruel and repressive racist regime."


Protesters held placards reading "This is a circus. A racist cannot fight racism," and repeatedly interrupted the speech with shouts of "Shame! shame!" and "Racist! racist!"

Later, about 100 members of mainly pro-Israel and Jewish groups tried to block Ahmadinejad's entrance to a scheduled news conference.


U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon met with Ahmadinejad before his speech and said he had counseled the Iranian leader to avoid dividing the conference. Ban later said he was disappointed Ahmadinejad had used his speech "to accuse, divide and even incite," directly opposing the aim of the meeting.


The Israeli Foreign Ministry condemned Ahmadinejad's speech and Ban's meeting with the Iranian leader.


"It is unfortunate that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deemed it appropriate to meet with the greatest Holocaust denier of our time, the head of a U.N. member state who calls for the destruction of another UN member state. This matter is especially severe, as it took place on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day," Israel said.

Ahmadinejad has been praised by some in the Muslim world for calling for Israel's destruction and for other anti-Israeli comments. The hard-liner has often used international forums to criticize Israel including at last year's U.N. General Assembly where he said Israel was on "a definite slope to collapse."


But his comments Monday could also further strain efforts to improve relations with the United States, Israel's top ally. Iran has been mostly lukewarm to overtures from President Barack Obama, but last week Ahmadinejad said the Islamic Republic was ready for a new relationship with Washington.


Alejandro Wolff, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, denounced "the Ahmadinejad spectacle" and the Iranian president's "vile and hateful speech."

"It's inaccurate. It shows disregard for the organization to which he is speaking, the United Nations, and does a grave injustice to the Iranian nation and the Iranian people," Wolff told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.


"We call on the Iranian leadership to show much measured, moderate, honest and constructive rhetoric when dealing with issues in the region, and not this type of vile, hateful, inciteful speech that we all saw ... this morning," he said.


Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said Britain would return to the talks but "unreservedly condemns his offensive and unacceptable remarks."


"He ascribed all the problems relating to racism in the modern world to Israel and the Jewish state, and that was enough for me to walk out," British Ambassador Peter Gooderham said.


In Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned what he called "an intolerable call to racist hate" and urged a firm reaction by the European Union.


Ahmadinejad's speech also took aim at the United States for its role in the global economic crisis and at Western countries for imposing unfair economic conditions on the developing world. Among his more brazen claims was the allegation that Zionists instigated the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in concert with weapons manufacturers.


Iran's state TV broadcast pictures showing some delegates cheering and other delegates leaving the conference.


"The president confidently continued his speech despite efforts by some Western diplomats to disrupt his address," it said.


But Ahmadinejad's anti-Israel remarks may not be well-received among many others in Iran. Ahmadinejad is up for re-election in June, but his popularity has been waning as Iran's economy struggles with high-inflation and unemployment. Many have criticized Ahmadinejad for spending too much time on anti-Israel and anti-Western rhetoric and not enough on the country's economy.


Ahmadinejad, as head of state, had the right to speak and did not need a U.N. invitation to the weeklong event aimed at stamping out intolerance worldwide.


Joining the U.S. as boycotters were Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand and Poland.


And even before Ahmadinejad's speech, Israel withdrew its ambassador from Switzerland on Monday in a harsh diplomatic response to a pre-conference dinner shared by Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz and Ahmadinejad. In their Sunday night conversation, Merz pressed the case of a jailed American journalist in Iran, acting in Switzerland's role as the official representative of U.S. interests in Iran.


The Swiss government said it also took up other "unresolved cases" of U.S.-Iranian relations in the meeting, which occurred Sunday night hours after Obama said the United States would communicate with Iran about journalist Roxana Saberi through Swiss intermediaries.

Speaking directly after Ahmadinejad's speech, Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store said the Iranian leader's comments "run counter to the very spirit of dignity of the conference."


Ahmadinejad "has made Iran the odd man out," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Bradley S. Klapper and Eliane Engeler in Geneva and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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Ahmadinejad at Durban II and ‘dialog with an insane man’
April 20th, 2009

What did Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s appearance at the opening of the Durban II conference on racism do to President Obama’s stated desire to look for new routes for dialog with Iran?


Here’s a clue: it probably didn’t help.


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This morning Ahmadinejad – the only major world figure to address a conference that the U.S. is boycotting because it seems designed to be a repeat of a 2001 meeting dominated by anti-Israel rhetoric and, sometimes, overt anti-Semitism – confirmed the views of U.S. officials and produced criticism from U.N. officials who somehow hoped the meeting wouldn’t be a rerun.


Apparently referring to the West, the Iranian president said “following World War II they resorted to military aggressions to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering. They sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine.”

Interestingly, Ahmadinejad, who has denied the Holocaust, made an oblique reference to it, saying “In compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine.”

Does that mean he now accepts the reality of the Holocaust?


Amb. Edward Walker, a longtime State Department official and onetime U.S. ambassador to Israel, said Ahmadinejad’s tirade didn’t help the Obama administration as it reexamines the U.S. policy of keeping Iran in the diplomatic deep freeze.


The outburst “makes President Obama’s olive branch to Ahmadinejad look absurd,” he said today. “I don’t see you have ‘dialog’ with an insane man.”


The saddest comment of the day may have come from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said “I deplore the use of this platform by the Iranian president to accuse, divide and even incite. We must all turn away from such a message in both form and substance.”


Which ignores the question of why his organization allowed a conference under its auspices to turn into the kind of farce U.S. officials had predicted.