The first United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance was held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001.
Regardless of its noble intentions, ‘Durban’ as it subsequently became known, quickly descended into an anti-Jewish hate-fest with an anti-Israel political agenda designed to turn Israel into a pariah state, along with attempts to deny antisemitism as a human rights issue.
Copies of the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ – a bogus and conspiratorial Russian text containing the supposed master plan for Jewish global domination were on sale, while outside the conference large antisemitic banners including those lamenting Hitler’s failure to solve the “Jewish problem” were on display.
You may have heard in recent days that the UK is the latest country to boycott the Durban IV conference, due to be held in September 2021 in New York. The US, Canada and Australia have also announced that they will not be attending.
Given the utterly shameful displays of anti-Israel bias and Holocaust inversion broadcast from Dáil Éireann last month, Ireland’s international reputation really cannot afford to be further sullied by being seen to endorse Durban IV. Enough is enough!
We are now asking you to please email Foreign Minister Simon Coveney to ask that Ireland NOT ATTEND the event.
His email address is: simon.coveney@oireachtas.ie
We have included a selection of pointers below to include in your email.
However, these pointers are for guidance only. Please use your own words. Keep your email brief and to-the-point and always remember to keep it polite.
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Dear Minister Coveney,
We are writing to ask that the Irish Government refuses to attend the Durban IV conference due to take place in September 2021 in New York, which will mark the 20th anniversary of the ‘World Conference Against Racism’, held in Durban, South Africa.
- Contrary to its stated purpose, the 2001 Conference, held one week before the 9/11 attacks, actually incited racism and went on to become widely known as the worst international manifestation of antisemitism in the post-war period.
- At one Palestinian-led march attended by thousands of people, one banner read “Hitler should have finished the job” and copies of the notorious, conspiratorial and wholly bogus “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” were on sale.
- Caricatures of Jews with hooked noses and fangs dripping with blood were distributed.
- Jewish human rights activists in attendance were threatened with screams of “You don’t belong to the human race.”
- The conference secretary-general, our own Mary Robinson, reportedly said of the conference that “there was horrible antisemitism present, particularly in some of the NGO discussions. A number of people said they’ve never been so hurt or so harassed or been so blatantly faced with antisemitism.”
- Since 2001, the Durban conference has been used to promote racism, antisemitism and Holocaust denial and the erosion of Israel’s right to exist.
- Tom Lantos, Holocaust survivor and US Congressman, said “It was the most sickening display of hate for Jews I have seen since the Nazi period.”
- In 2011 Barack Obama said, “Since its inception […] the Durban process has included ugly displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism.
- Follow-up events Durban II and III were boycotted by a number of countries, including Canada, Israel, Italy, the US, Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland, Australia and New Zealand over concerns about antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred.
- At the September 2021 commemoration, the UN is poised to adopt a declaration calling for full implementation of the 2001 Durban Declaration which singles out only one country by name: Israel.
- The UK, US, Australia and Canada have already announced they will not participate in the 2021 conference.
- Given the antisemitism and extreme anti-Israel discourse associated with the original conference it is commemorating, I do not believe that Ireland should give credibility to this event.
