UN Human Rights Chief: Durban II A Success

What else would one expect of the UN? The head of the UN Human Rights Commission said not only was Durban II successful, but those who were critical of the conference were engaging in a disinformation campaign.

Navi Pillay, who spoke as the five-day conference wound down, said countries managed to go beyond issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to discuss broader problems of discrimination and intolerance in many parts of the world.

The U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights said some campaign groups had tried before the meeting to brand it a forum for hate and urged governments to stay away. She did not identify the groups.

"We have had some rough moments in the process, but a hate-fest? I'm sorry, but this is hyperbole," Pillay said. She said there was a "highly organized and widespread campaign of disinformation."

Pro-Israel groups warned before the conference that it could see a repeat of the anti-Semitic outbursts that marred the first global racism meeting in Durban, South Africa, eight years ago.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech on the opening day backed the critics' argument that the global body is unable to tackle the problem of racism in an acceptable manner. The Iranian leader accused the West of using the Holocaust as a "pretext" to harm the Palestinians, and branded Israel a "repressive racist regime," prompting protests from Jewish groups and a walkout by 23 European countries.

Raphael Haddad, president of the French Union of Jewish Students, said the presence of Ahmadinejad at an anti-racism conference called into question the whole purpose of the event.

"For anybody involved in fighting against racism, this conference was just a big circus," he said. The group made its point by dressing in multicolored wigs and throwing red clown noses at the Iranian leader during his speech.

Pillay said the meeting was "a strange, rough and tumble affair full of smoke and mirrors, I must admit, yet very definitely a success story with plenty of goodwill."

I'm sorry, but there was no disinformation needed when exposing the genocidal rhetoric of the keynote speaker, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. He was chosen to give a keynote speech, despite his intent to make it an anti-Israel hatefest. He succeeded.

Throw in the fact that the Durban II crowd reiterated the Durban I statement which singled Israel out for special treatment as a racist country, and Pillay must have one serious case of myopia (or is that cognitive dissonance).

The Durban II agreement reiterates and incorporates the Durban I statement. The UN touts Durban II as a declaration of human rights principles, but it retains it's anti-Israel bias; the very fact that this conference, entitled the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, devotes chapter and verse to specifically single out Israel shows just how biased the UN and this group is.

There was no other nation singled out for treatment in such a fashion. China was not singled out for treatment of Tibet. Sri Lanka was not singled out for treatment of Tamil Tigers. Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other Muslim dominant countries were not singled out for the treatment of non-Muslims. Sudan isn't singled out for treatment of Darfurians.

The only nation deemed worthy of such treatment is Israel.

In fact, the lengthy diatribes that accompany the statement are nearly all related to Israel in some fashion - the Arab and Muslim world decrying Israel's existence and treatment of Palestinians and meager defense of Israel by others, including the Canadians. Many were of the same tone and tenor of Ahmadinejad's speech this past week.