JHRC will be fighting racism at the UN Durban Review Conference that begins on this Monday, the 20th of April, in Geneva.

The original World Conference Against Racism, in 2001 Durban, was hijacked by Anti-Israel and Anti-Zionist groups who led a well organised campaign , backed by Muslim and Arab governments, to exclude antisemitism from the conference agenda and to label Israel as an apartheid state and to revisit the “Zionism = Racism” equation. The conference itself was marked by harassment of Jewish delegates and antisemitic flyers praising Hitler. The USA and Israel walked out in disgust.

Early drafts of the Durban Review declaration contained text that downplayed antisemitism, demonised Israel and Zionism as uniquely racist, and claimed that “defamation of religion” was a form of racism. These lines have been removed from the latest version of the text, but could still be reinserted at a later stage.

Worryingly, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced he will attend the Conference. At his last speech at on a UN platform, he said that

“a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists … have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centres as well as the political decision-making centres of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner”

Given Ahmadinejad record of making antisemitic speeches at UN events, there is serious concern about the impact of his presence and actions.

The UK Jewish community delegation to the Durban Review Conference will be led by the co-chairs of the Jewish Human Rights Coalition (JHRC-UK), Rosalind Preston OBE and Henry Grunwald QC. The delegation will be attending to lobby governments, running a side event in the Conference venue on fighting racism, and working to ensure that the Conference is true to its principles.

JHRC-UK will be live-blogging on developments at the Durban Review Conference at its website www.jhrc.org.uk

You can also follow @JhrcUK on Twitter for real-time coverage of the Conference plenary.