US reaches out to Jewish leaders on ‘Durban II
February 19, 2009 by SAF Desk
Filed under News at a glance
HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
Senior White House and State Department officials held a conference call with American Jewish leaders Monday to reassure them over the administration’s decision to participate in preliminary discussions about the United Nation’s World Conference Against Racism conference in Geneva this April.
The previous UN World Conference against Racism held in Durban.
Photo: AP [file]
Jewish leaders were told that Washington’s decision to participate in the conference was being coordinated with the Israeli government, and that the US presence was an effort to change the direction of the conference, dubbed “Durban II,” according to participants in the call who would not be identified.
The US officials said that they were “under no illusions” that the nature of the gathering – which featured anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic material in its first incarnation held in Durban, South Africa in 2001, causing the Bush administration to pull its participation – would be easy to change.
Israel and many Jewish organizations have objected to the April conference and some of its preliminary material, which echoes the 2001 parley. Several had urged the Bush administration to announce it would boycott the event, but no official announcement was made.