Ha'aretz - 08.06.2001

 

Ha'aretz

Back to malicious formulations

Racism is an old human characteristic, which lurks deep in the darkest and meanest recesses of the human spirit. The Jewish people can testify to this like no other, as a result of their own unparalleled experience with countless violent and cruel expressions of this characteristic throughout their history. Even now, despite the memories of the Holocaust and its lessons, anti-Jewish racism - anti-Semitism - continues to poison hearts in many countries of the world.

Thus, it would have been only natural for the Jewish people and the state of Israel to wholeheartedly welcome the United Nations initiative to hold an international conference against racism. It would have been natural, indeed, for such a conference to discuss the current wave of anti-Semitism, and to adopt resolutions denouncing it.

Even were this not the case, the Israeli delegation ought naturally to find itself among the leading and most active participants at such a conference, sharing ideas and initiatives on ways of flushing out the scourge of racism that still infects our world.

Instead, in consultations now taking place in advance of the World Conference Against Racism, scheduled for Durban at the end of this month, Israel finds itself in the dock, first on the list of those accused and condemned. The conference, whose organizers' original aims were so lofty, has for all practical purposes been hijacked by Arab and other countries, which would like to divert the deliberations and the decisions into a form of anti-Israeli propaganda, emitting - and what a sad irony it is - a blatant odor of racism.

These countries have not even shrunk from seeking to resuscitate that despicable equation,"Zionism is Racism," which stained the annals of the United Nations for almost two decades, until the world body regained its senses and resolved to abrogate it. Only the intense involvement of American diplomats convinced the participants at the preparatory meeting in Geneva, at the end of last week, that any insistence on such an article will result in a U.S. boycott of the conference in Durban.

However, there are still a long series of proposals and formulations on the agenda for discussion, which seek to blur, with malicious cynicism, the sharp criticism in many countries of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians and the absolute condemnation and rejection of racism to which all states and nations now unreservedly subscribe.

The United States has its own problems and reservations regarding the conference in Durban, in view of the radical positions being taken concerning the issue of slavery in American history. However, incredible though it sounds, most of the efforts of American diplomats revolve around the Israeli issue, and this is shaping up as the potential obstacle to the convening of the conference, or to the conference's eventual success.

Israel has no wish to cause the postponment or failure of the conference. It has no intention for the U.S. to apply its influence, and enter into confrontations, on its behalf. It is especially not Israel's intention that the African-American public in the U.S., which fervently supports the holding of the conference, will feel that because of Israel, its expectations were quashed.

On the other hand, the days when the Jewish people were blamed for all the ills of humanity - and kept silent - are over. This, indeed, is the deep meaning of the movement for Jewish liberation, Zionism - and it has absolutely nothing in common with racism.