AUSTRALIA has cancelled plans to attend an anti-racism conference in Geneva over concerns the UN-backed forum will degenerate into a launchpad for anti-Semitic attacks.

The decision to boycott the Durban Review Conference was taken after Australia, in conjunction with the US, Israel and other countries, was unsuccessful in pushing for changes to the wording of a draft document upholding anti-Semitic remarks in the 2001 Durban Declaration.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith yesterday said that while Australia remained strongly committed to fighting racism, the federal Government could not support the document reaffirming the original declaration.

Canada, the US, Israel and Italy have for similar reasons already pulled out of Durban II, which begins today.

The Netherlands broke ranks with the European Union last night to join the boycott. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said The Netherlands would not attend because it feared the event would be abused ``for political ends and attacks on the West''.


Germany is also considering a boycott, after intense lobbying by Mr Smith and Mr Verhagen.


Pro-Palestinian Labor backbencher Julia Irwin broke ranks to slam the boycott.

Canberra's 11th hour decision follows a US State Department announcement on the weekend that changes in the meeting's final document did not address concerns of anti-Israel and anti-Western bias. The 2001 Durban conference ended acrimoniously, with Israel and the US storming out in protest over Arab attempts to adopt a resolution equating Zionism with racism.

Mr Smith said he feared the Geneva conference was heading the same way. "The 2001 declaration singled out Israel and the Middle East," he said. "Australia expressed strong views about this at the time. The Australian Government continues to have these concerns.

"Regrettably, we cannot be confident that the review conference will not be used as a platform to air offensive views, including anti-Semitic views. Of additional concern are the suggestions of some delegations in the Durban process to limit the universal right to free speech."

Mr Smith's argument was strongly rejected by Ms Irwin.

"It's a shame Australia will be one of a handful of nations boycotting the Durban conference," Ms Irwin said.

"Any nation which has policies which discriminate on the grounds of race or religion should not be above criticism and should not be supported by the Australian Government."

Australia's Jewish community warmly welcomed yesterday's decision.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Robert Goot said the Durban II conference would not advance the fight to combat racism but would again single out Israel for condemnation.

Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said Durban II's draft declaration was always going to be problematic.

"With Libya chairing the preparatory committee assisted by Cuba as rapporteur and Iran as one of several vice-chairs, the proposed outcome document has mixed the fight against racism with a variety of morally deplorable political agendas," Dr Rubenstein said.
Palestinian groups expressed anger and disappointment at the decision, which they said showed Australia was not serious about ending racism.

Australians for Palestine founding member Moammar Mashni said the Rudd Government had bowed to pressure from pro-Israel lobbies.

While Britain says it will be attending, the participation of countries such as Iran and Cuba, which have reputations as serial human rights violators, is likely to ensure the summit turns into an anti-Israel and anti-US slanging match.

Irwin is right,

the jews are the biggest racists on earth

besides the fundy christian,the yanks dont have the balls to turn up either, I suppose the facts the jews own the USA might have something to do with it.

......

anybody who puts their religion before fellow humans is a retard.

Irwin is right, the jews are the biggest racists on earth besides the fundy christian,the yanks dont have the balls to turn up either, I suppose the facts the jews own the USA might have something to do with it.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith yesterday said that while Australia remained strongly committed to fighting racism, the federal Government could not support the document reaffirming the original declaration.

Canada, the US, Israel and Italy have for similar reasons already pulled out of Durban II, which begins today.

UNITED Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has criticised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over a speech attacking Israel's "totally racist government" at a UN anti-racism meeting.

Mr Ban said Mr Ahmadinejad had ignored his plea beforehand not to make such comments.

"I deplore the use of this platform by the Iranian President to accuse, divide and even incite. This is the opposite of what this conference seeks to achieve," he said.

Mr Ban met Mr Ahmadinejad before the Iranian president was due to speak, to remind him that the UN General Assembly had "adopted the resolutions to revoke the equation of Zionism with racism and to reaffirm the historical facts of the Holocaust", he said.

"It is deeply regrettable that my plea to look to the future of unity was not heeded by the Iranian President."

When addressing a UN conference against racism, Mr Ahmadinejad criticised the creation of a "totally racist government in occupied Palestine" in 1948, calling it "the most cruel and racist regime".

His remarks prompted 23 European Union delegations to walk out of the conference room in protest.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay joined the condemnation saying she "utterly" deplored Mr Ahmadinejad's speech, describing him as "somebody who traditionally makes obnoxious statements".

"I condemn the use of a UN forum for political grandstanding. I find this totally objectionable," she added, reiterating that it clearly defied the UN's position by equating Zionism with racism.

"The best riposte for this type of event is to reply and correct, not to withdraw and boycott the conference," she added.

Mr Ban described the event as a "very troubling experience for me as a Secretary General".

"I have not experienced this kind of disruptive proceedings of the assembly conference by any one member state. It was a totally unacceptable situation," he said.

DELEGATES from Western countries last night walked out of the UN anti-racism summit in Geneva after Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used his keynote speech to attack Israel as racist.

Mr Ahmadinejad criticised the formation of a "racist government" in the Middle East, in a clear reference to Israel.
"They sent migrants from Europe, the United States ... in order to establish a racist government in the occupied Palestine," he said on the opening day of the five-day conference known as Durban II.
Three protesters from the French Union of Jewish Students dressed as clowns and shouting "racist, racist," were expelled from the conference as Mr Ahmadinejad began to speak. One of them threw a soft red object at the Iranian President, hitting the podium and interrupting his speech.
Shortly afterwards a stream of Western diplomats, including from Britain and France, walked out. France condemned Mr Ahmadinejad's "hate speech" delivered on the same day as Holocaust Memorial Day, saying "no compromise was possible" with his UN racism stance.
The Iranian President had ignored entreaties from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that a UN resolution states Zionism cannot be equated with racism.
Mr Ahmadinejad - who has called the Holocaust a myth and for Israel to be wiped off the map - had before his arrival in Geneva launched a broadside against the Jewish state, saying "the Zionist ideology and regime are the flag-bearers of racism".
The conference opened soon after Germany and New Zealand joined the US, Israel, Australia, Italy, Canada and The Netherlands in boycotting the follow-up to the original anti-racism conference in South Africa in 2001, during which the US and Israel walked out over what they said were anti-Semitic attacks directed at Israel.
Mr Ban appeared to attempt to repair the damage to the summit by saying in his opening address that the world should condemn "anti-Semitism and Islamophobia" and by saying the world could not forget the Holocaust.
The Durban Review Conference is intended to examine efforts to overcome racism in the eight years since the first gathering in South Africa.
Frantic efforts have been made in recent weeks to change the wording of the draft mission statement for the summit so it was not an attack on Israel, and although Israel was not referred to in the final draft, the boycotting countries believed the conference could become an outlet for anti-Semitic attacks.
Australia announced its boycott on Sunday, with Foreign Minister Stephen Smith saying: "Regrettably we cannot be confident the review conference will not again be used as a platform to air offensive views, including anti-Semitic views."
Barack Obama said yesterday the US had boycotted the summit because Washington did not want to put "an imprimatur" on a conference it did not believe in. The US President said the South African conference had become "a session through which folks expressed antagonism towards Israel in ways that were oftentimes completely hypocritical and counter-productive".
The conference has increased the tensions between Iran and Israel, which are already engaged in verbal hostilities over Iran's ambitions to develop a nuclear program.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the fact that Mr Ahmadinejad was a keynote speaker justified Israel's decision to boycott the conference.
"The fact that a racist like Ahmadinejad is the main speaker proves the true aim and nature of the conference," he said yesterday.
Mr Lieberman said Israelis could not ignore the fact that the conference began on the same day as Holocaust Memorial Day.

Irwin is right, the jews are the biggest racists on earth besides the fundy christian,the yanks dont have the balls to turn up either, I suppose the facts the jews own the USA might have something to do with it.