B’nai B’rith, Which Led Jewish Delegation at 2001 Summit, Is Urging Countries Not to Join
Official Commemoration

B’nai B’rith International, in partnership with the Jerusalem News Syndicate (JNS), held a live program today examining the lasting and harmful effects of the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.

Held on the 25th anniversary of the Durban conference, the program explored how the U.N. event helped legitimize antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric, including the portrayal of the Jewish state and its supporters as “racist.” Panelists examined how the normalization of such rhetoric has contributed to anti-Jewish hostility and violence, particularly in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.

Speakers

Hosted by B’nai B’rith Honorary CEO and Senior Advisor Daniel S. Mariaschin, the program featured Ambassador Danny Danon, Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations; ​Ambassador Jeff Bartos, U.S. Representative for U.N. Management and Reform; B’nai B’rith CEO Evan R. Bernstein; 2001 delegation leader and B’nai B’rith Honorary President Richard D. Heideman; International March of the Living President Phyllis Greenberg Heideman; B’nai B’rith Director of U.N. and Intercommunal Affairs David Michaels; former Israeli Ambassador to South Africa Tova Herzl; B’nai B’rith Director of Latin American Affairs Eduardo Kohn; International Legal Forum CEO and former Knesset Member Michal Cotler-Wunsh; and London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism Fellow Izabella Tabarovsky.

History and Today

B’nai B’rith brought the largest Jewish delegation to the Durban conference and ultimately led the Jewish walk-out from the meetings. Since then, B’nai B’rith has organized major counterprogramming on the anniversaries of the 2001 conference—still celebrated by the United Nations, as it will do again on Sep. 28. B’nai B’rith, which pioneered Jewish engagement with the U.N. and spearheads communal talks with heads of state and government on the sidelines of the world body each September, is directly advocating that member states decline to participate in the commemoration on that date. We are also inviting members of the public to sign a petition to this effect here.

Durban at 25: Seeds of Hate

Honorary CEO and Senior Adviser Daniel S. Mariaschin

Mariaschin opened the JNS program by reflecting on the enduring legacy of Durban: “That conference—which should have been a noble event, dedicated to the elimination of bigotry—instead became a cauldron of bigotry, against Israel and against Jews. A small delegation of Jewish representatives from around the world found itself facing not just political statements singling out Israel for derision but an atmosphere of threats, intimidation, exclusion and overt violent extremism. For many, Durban came to represent singular U.N. mistreatment of Israel, and one of the highest-profile displays of anti-Jewish hostility since World War II and the Holocaust.”

Honorary President Richard D. Heideman

Richard Heideman discussed the rhetoric that emerged from Durban and its connection to contemporary anti-Israel activism: “Look at what’s going on today in cities, in communities, in countries around the world. We are being attacked as a people. We’re being told, ‘If you support Israel, we can attack you.’ We’re being told, ‘If you’re a Zionist, we hate you.’ We have to put a stop to this.

Most of the people protesting out there after Oct. 7 weren’t even born at the time of Durban, but they’re practicing the lessons of Durban. Let us remember that the Durban Declaration, the Durban program, is a manifesto—a manifesto of hate, of terror… Take a look at Oct. 8 around the world. The seeds of hate were so prevalent, and it has continued now for almost three years.”

Ambassador Danny Danon

Danon said of Durban, “this conference was supposed to be about human rights. Unfortunately, it became a platform to promote hate against Israel, hate against the Jewish people.” He highlighted B’nai B’rith’s continued work to confront antisemitism at the United Nations: “I want to thank B’nai B’rith for all of your efforts. I am fighting the hatred at the U.N. 24/7.”

He added, “We will fight back and we will prevail. But for that to happen, we have to stay united… We know that we are together in this fight for justice.”

Ambassador Jeff Bartos

Bartos scrutinized the hypocrisy of the conference and how the rhetoric that came out of the Durban Declaration influenced later extremist activists: “Sadly, Durban, a conference meant to rid the world of discrimination, laid the foundation of the increasingly discriminatory world we find ourselves in today. It was grotesquely antisemitic, but it was also anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-free enterprise, and hostile to the values that we have expanded: freedom, prosperity, religious freedom, and human dignity around the world…

If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because Durban and all its ilk built the groundwork, the foundation, for the BDS movement years before BDS became fashionable on Western campuses and other bastions of liberal elitism.”

B’nai B’rith CEO Evan R. Bernstein

Bernstein emphasized B’nai B’rith’s role at the conference as well as the spread of anti-Israel narratives: “The hatred promoted at that 2001 conference helped normalize the demonization and extremist rhetoric that we experience today. Over the years, that rhetoric spread through international forums, campuses, protests and political movements. It helped make boycotts, delegitimization and the denial of Israel’s right to exist seem acceptable to members of a new generation.”

International March of the Living President Phyllis Greenberg Heideman

On her experience at the Durban conference and why it remains crucial to confront hatred of any kind, Greenberg Heideman said, “I can tell you that in our worst nightmares, I don’t think any of us were either prepared or anticipated what lay ahead… It is important to pass on to the next generation of leaders and followers that being silent doesn’t work, pandering doesn’t work, and surely the denial of hatred… can come to no good end. We want the rest of the world, not just the Jewish children but all the next generation, to understand there comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to stand up.”

B’nai B’rith Director of Latin American Affairs Eduardo Kohn

Kohn, who also attended the 2001 conference, recalled the hostility Jews encountered at Durban and its long-term implications for the fight against antisemitism: “We were harassed. We were threatened physically, and finally the Jewish organizations and B’nai B’rith decided, ‘We go out’ [of the conference]… We were very close to physical violence, so it was a very big warning. And for me it was clear that the future of the U.N. system was in danger.”

Former Israeli Ambassador to South Africa Tova Herzl

Herzl recalled the “touch and go” uncertainty surrounding the Israeli delegation’s decision to attend the conference, noting that there was significant debate over whether to participate. She said the delegation ultimately arrived hours late after deciding at the last minute to attend: “Eventually, the decision, both in Jerusalem and in Washington, was to participate at a lower level. I don’t think anybody… anticipated the level of hostility we encountered… I think it was a wake-up call and a big shock for everyone.”

B’nai B’rith Director of United Nations and Intercommunal Affairs David Michaels

Michaels addressed how the Durban Declaration is still present and promoted at the U.N. 25 years later: “Although, as we heard, even some U.N. officials, in a rarity, were forced to disassociate from the manifestations of anti-Jewish hostility at Durban, Durban continues to this day to be actively promulgated by the U.N. Not only on every major anniversary, like the one coming up, but under a dedicated permanent [agenda] Item 9 during every session of the Human Rights Council, an item that is devoted to promoting the Durban Declaration.”

International Legal Forum CEO and former Knesset Member Michal Cotler-Wunsh

Cotler-Wunsh examined how language used at Durban has continued to appear in contemporary protests and political discourse: “Durban was intended to be a conference against racism. Those who were there, particularly human rights organizations, witnessed those protests that were part and parcel of a systematic hijacking, redefinition, inversion and weaponization of [human rights] terms.

We should not be surprised when what we see in the streets post-2023—including the accusation, the hijacking of [the charge of] genocide—are exactly the same signs, with exactly the same lethal hate… The same words are going to be used as slurs to demonize, delegitimize, and apply double standards to the State of Israel… and therefore justify, if you will, the tsunami of normalization and institutionalization of anti-Zionism, the modern strain of a virulent, ever-mutating hatred anchored in lies.”

London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism Fellow Izabella Tabarovsky

Tabarovsky discussed the relationship between Jewish identity, Zionism and the rhetoric that emerged from Durban: “A connection to Israel is an integral part of Jewish identity, and if you condemn this important part of who we are as Jews as ‘racist,’ that opens the door to all kinds of other tropes to come in. Scholars in antisemitism trace the rebirth of antisemitism to Durban… When you say that Israel is this ‘racist state’ that doesn’t have a right to exist, everything becomes possible.

This is why it becomes possible to attack Jews in synagogues. This is why it becomes possible to attack them wherever they gather for whatever purpose. Because any time Jews express a connection to Zionism, to the State of Israel, to the Land of Israel, they become a target because Durban and the U.N.… said that this is a racist endeavor, this is a racist enterprise, and therefore [implicitly] it needs to be eliminated.”

Watch

Watch the full program here.

Resources

More B’nai B’rith resources on the Durban conference and the 25 years since can be found here.