U.S., Israel Quit Forum on Racism

The United States and Israel pulled out of the ill-fated World Conference Against Racism on Monday night to protest the Arab community’s persistent efforts to single out the Jewish state for its treatment of Palestinians.

The pullout, which came as little surprise after four days of acrimonious debate and finger-pointing, nevertheless threatened to undermine the credibility of the international gathering. The conference was a year in the planning, it’s being attended by thousands of delegates, and it retains the ambitious goal of formulating an action plan to combat racism, xenophobia and discrimination the world over.

Drafts of final declarations by the U.N.-sponsored conference, which ends Friday, had branded Israel as racist for its actions against Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Though the Arab community had dropped its demand to expressly label Zionism as racism in the document, its alternative language amounted to much the same thing.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell decided not to attend the conference himself and to send a mid-level delegation to protest such language. He issued a statement in Washington on Monday saying that he regretted pulling the U.S. out of the conference but that he had no choice.

“I know that you do not combat racism by conferences that produce declarations containing hateful language, some of which is a throwback to the days of ‘Zionism is racism’; or supports the idea that we have made too much of the Holocaust; or suggests that apartheid exists in Israel; or that singles out only one country in the world, Israel, for censure and abusive language,” Powell said.

The Palestinian Authority’s envoy to South Africa, Salman Harfy, criticized the U.S. decision, saying the White House was using the Palestinians as cover to avoid discussing the American role in slavery.

“It is unfortunate and unnecessary,” Harfy said of the Powell order. “It is very easy to blame Arabs and Palestinians. They are accustomed to blaming us. They are lying. We are in negotiations. We didn’t close the door. . . . As usual, they hide their real intentions.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, speaking in Jerusalem, said the U.N. conference had been overtaken by “hatred, lies and prejudice” used to “smear” and “delegitimize” the Jewish state. The conference, he said, was a farce.

“What was meant to be a human rights conference turned into a festival of calls for war and contempt,” Peres told reporters.

The joint pullout was a blow to United Nations officials and dozens of other groups that had hoped to settle the dispute over the Middle East, or at least tone it down, to avoid undermining myriad other issues on the agenda of the gathering, formally called the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

These include the plights of the Dalits, or “untouchables,” on the Indian subcontinent, of the aboriginal people of Australia and of migrant workers. Their causes have been buried beneath the rancor over the Middle East.

The South African government called the U.S. retreat “unfortunate and unnecessary,” and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said, “We must persist in our endeavors.”

There was no indication that other delegations planned to follow suit.

Almost from the moment the conference was conceived, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict threatened to be a spoiler. As the violence between the two peoples escalated over the last 11 months and the conference drew closer, it became increasingly clear that the intifada, or Palestinian uprising, would spill into the Durban International Convention Center. But bringing the fight to Durban proved costly to many people who have no connection to the Holy Land.

African American leaders hoped the forum would help win them an apology or a commitment to reparations for U.S. involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. That issue will still be addressed, but without the U.S. at the table, any final document will carry less weight. That sparked anger among African Americans who came here to see their government discuss their concerns.

“We definitely believe it is a smoke screen. We believe the United States is showing one more time [that] all this talk about freedom and liberty is a lie,” said Adjoa Aiyetoro, an attorney with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Washington. “They need to stop hiding behind and supporting Israel when the United States isn’t even supporting its own people.”

“I am very, very disappointed, but I am not surprised,” said Rep. Donna M. Christian-Christensen (D-Virgin Islands), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus who is attending the convention. “This conference is very important to us because it addresses something that has defined and shaped our lives. We hoped, and we still hope, that we can address the issue of transatlantic slavery.”

Israel has been wary of the U.N. meeting for some time, convinced that it would be used to indict the Jewish state for its treatment of the Palestinians and for the way it has conducted itself during the intifada.

Israel argues that its tough military actions against the Palestinians have been taken in self-defense against potential suicide bombers and other attackers. It further argues that branding Zionism a form of racism is a challenge to the Jewish state’s right to exist.

Jewish supporters in Durban backed the withdrawal decisions, saying the U.S. tried to negotiate but gave up only when it became clear that Arab states would not settle for a compromise plan that would have addressed the Palestinian conflict without condemning Israel.

“We came here to talk about racism--and we saw this conference hijacked by extremist elements,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. “The hijacking of this conference left this administration no choice.”

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), the only Holocaust survivor elected to Congress and a formal member of the U.S. delegation, said Monday that the talks broke down when the Arab community refused to take out the language that vilified Israel.

“The original goals of the conference could not be more uplifting and noble,” Lantos said. “Things went wrong because a group of Arab and Islamic extremists have decided to hijack the conference.”

There were plenty of indicators that a breakdown would come Monday. In one room at the convention center, delegates from around the world were arguing over whether they should argue about several paragraphs in the proposed memorandum that criticized Israel.

The text said, in part, “We express our deep concern about practices of official discrimination against the Palestinians as well as other inhabitants of the Arab occupied territories . . . and call for the practices of racial discrimination to which the Palestinians . . . by Israel are subjected” to end.

Later, speaking in the main hall, the head of the Israeli delegation, Mordechai Yedid, gave his nation’s only address to the forum.

“The venal hatred of Jews that has taken the form of anti-Zionism and which has surfaced at this conference is . . . different in one crucial way from the anti-Semitism of the past,” he said. “Today it is being deliberately propagated and manipulated for political ends.”

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher sat in the audience.

“Nonsense,” he said when it was finished. “The Israelis rightly condemn the Holocaust and anti-Semitism. Why are the Palestinians not permitted to address racism against them? We have to come here and see Israel give a lesson on humanity while every day they are killing Palestinians.”

When three Israeli journalists approached Maher and asked if he defended the car bombs that exploded in Jerusalem on Monday, the foreign minister exploded in anger.

“You are an occupying power,” he shouted, jabbing a finger at the men while his security whisked him away.

A moment later, Haim and Edna Avraham walked into the hallway alongside Yedid. The Avrahams’ son, Benjamin, was one of three young soldiers kidnapped in October by the militant Lebanese-based group Hezbollah. For a few moments Monday, they remained quiet, and then Haim Avraham burst out screaming.

“This is not a conference about racism,” he said. “It is a joke--these people want to throw us into the sea. They want another Holocaust.”

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Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Jerusalem contributed to this report.