[Ed. Note: this article/headline have been updated to reflect that 34 nations ultimately boycotted the Durban IV Conference. They include Albania, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay. 25 Sept. 2021]
Jerusalem is applauding the refusal of 31 nations to attend an event at the United Nations today commemorating the 20th anniversary of the controversial Durban World Conference on Racism.
By Erin Viner
Several of the countries boycotting the event are European Union member states, including Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands, who announced plans to skip the so-called “Durban IV” conference over concerns about antisemitism and the platform being misused to attack Israel.
The United States and Israel walked out of the first Durban conference in 2001 after it evolved into an attack on the Jewish State, including a final text that equated Zionism with racism. Several EU delegates also walked out of the 2009 conference when then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the forum to condemn Israel.
“We doubled the number of countries that will boycott the hate conference!” wrote Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan on his official Facebook and Twitter accounts, pointing out that the number of nations planning to boycott the “shameful” “anti-Semitic Durban Conference” was more than twice higher than those that refused to attend the Third Durban Conference in 2011.
“In recent months, I’ve talked to dozens of ambassadors, leaders and activists, harnessed the Jewish organizations for the struggle and worked in collaboration with the American government so that the world understands – the Durban Conference was rotten from the ground up and so every event that indicates it is a ′′fruit of a poisoned tree,” wrote Erdan.
“I am happy and proud that many more countries understand this today and will continue to fight until they understand that the United Nations must erase the stain of Durban,” the Israeli diplomat stressed, calling on his supporters to forward his messages and “Share so that the world hears the truth.”
Israeli Foreign Minister and Alternate Premier Yair Lapid was quick to re-post Ambassador Erdan’s statements on his own official social media accounts, alongside his remark that, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs came to work: a targeted and successful political operation against the Durban Anti-Semitism Conference.”