FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband held a series of telephone calls with representatives of the Jewish Human Rights Coalition (JHRC-UK) on the eve of the much-anticipated Durban Review Conference last Friday afternoon.

In three separate conversations, Henry Grunwald QC (President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council), Lord (Greville) Janner of Braunstone QC and Jeremy Newmark (CEO of the Jewish Leadership Council) took the opportunity to underline the full extent of communal concern around the conference.

It was made clear to the Foreign Secretary that there is deep discomfort at the prospect of the UK Government remaining engaged in the process given the continued uncertainty around draft text related to the Holocaust and the continued Iranian resistance to the inclusion of robust clauses on Holocaust commemoration.

Moreover, in addition to the draft text, the Foreign Secretary was urged to consider serious concerns about the conduct and atmosphere of the event itself. It was stressed that UK involvement must be looked at in the context of the arena that is being constructed by the UN for the most significant global conversation on anti-racism this decade. The event organised by Libya and aided by Iran and Cuba - some of the worst human rights abusers in the world - will now be addressed by Iranian President Ahmedinajad, a denier of the Holocaust who used his last UN General Assembly platform to espouse antisemitism.

The Foreign Secretary assured the communal representatives that as a result of their previous representations the UK had decided not to send a ministerial level representative, and had urged EU partners to act in a similar manner. He also reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to withdraw its delegation if red lines are crossed, and confirmed that any unacceptable language from the Iranian leader would meet with a firm response.

Henry Grunwald QC commented:

“Under the umbrella of JHRC-UK, our community has consistently advocated engagement with the Durban Review Process, and contributed directly to it. At the same time, we have made it clear that this stance would change if there were signals that any of the antisemitism that marred the original Durban conference would reappear. We made it clear to the Foreign Secretary on Friday that we were already perilously close to that point, and that the prospect of Ahmadinejad addressing the conference was a travesty. This is why on Friday we asked the Foreign Secretary to once again reconsider UK involvement in this process and to withdraw from it.”

ENDS