Eight years ago, at the first U.N. World Conference Against Racism, pro-Israel activists endured a week of hate-filled insults, pamphlets, posters and marches in the streets of Durban, South Africa.
When they finally marched out of a forum that branded Israel genocidal and racist, like apartheid South Africa, kaffiyah-clad antagonists serenaded them with chants of “Free, free Palestine!”
Overwhelmed, activists vowed to prepare better the next time. That chance comes later this month: the Durban Review Conference will be held April 20-24 in the Swiss city of Geneva.
Palestinian supporters will hold another large street demonstration and brainstorm ways to strengthen their Israel-is-apartheid movement. But this time around Jewish groups are prepared with demonstrations and events of their own.
“Jewish tradition teaches us to repair the world, not turn our back on the world,” says Felice Gaer, who attended Durban as director of the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for Human Rights. “So why will Jewish groups be in Geneva? To bear witness, fight back and repair the world.”
Inside the actual forum, with Israel having announced its boycott long ago, each pro- and anti-Israel group will be allotted several minutes daily to address governmental delegations.
Yet the Israeli-Palestinian conflict won’t be the only provocative subject. With some European states still threatening a boycott, the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference will likely accuse the West of Islamophobia and press to restrict criticism of Islam — and perhaps overwhelm all other grievances on the agenda.
“It’s part of the Islamic group’s strategy: rather than deal with extremist Islam, they take an offensive position and say Islam is the victim of Western crimes,” says Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based U.N. Watch. “What else will they talk about — genocide in Darfur?”
Observers expect Iran, Syria and others to level more “Zionism is racism”–style charges against Israel in Geneva.
Jewish NGOs will be among those pressing the European Union to focus on topics they deem more legitimate. They’ll also be networking with like-minded NGOs.
“While some groups try to bring as much harm and pain as possible to Israel, my job will be to build up a coalition among those who realize their agenda is being hijacked,” says Shimon Samuels, director for international relations for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
To avert some of the rowdiness of Durban, U.N. diplomats decided to eliminate the NGO forum and hold this session at their secure Geneva campus.
But activists are planning to demonstrate no matter where the session is held. A major anti-Israel demonstration — with the “International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network” a highly visible co-sponsor — and a “Warsaw to Gaza” event that links Israelis to Nazis will presumably draw many TV cameras.
One organizer says leading legal minds — including several from apartheid-era South Africa — will huddle to figure out how to make the apartheid charge stick against Israel.
Jewish activists are planning to counter punch.
On April 20, Swiss Jewish groups will host a Holocaust commemoration that features Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy and others.
Some 40 human-rights groups will sponsor a “Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy” to showcase Burmese, Cuban, Iranian and Egyptian dissidents; Jewish groups will co-host a “Conference Against Racism, Discrimination and Persecution” — viewed by some as a virtual “alternative” to the actual Durban conference — and Jewish and Israel groups will put on an “Israel Wants Peace” rally with Natan Sharansky, Alan Dershowitz, and Ethiopian and Bedouin Israelis.
“If the U.N. were really reflecting universal and moral values, these are the types of events they would run,” says Gerald Steinberg, executive director of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor. “And Israel wouldn’t have to go out of its way to show it’s not racist.”