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B’nai B’rith International praises Australia for deciding to boycott the commemoration of the World Conference against Racism at the United Nations in September in New York. The event will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the first conference, which Australia did not attend.  Although meant to combat global racism, the conference was reduced to a racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hate fest. This was followed in 2009 by a review conference, which Australia also did not attend.

The conference’s initial goal of addressing and combating racism has been replaced by attempts to isolate Israel in the international community by demonizing and delegitimizing the Jewish state.

The second conference, in 2009, featured Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a speaker, and only furthered the denigration of Israel. This year’s commemoration, by affirming the original Durban Declaration and Programme of Action that had singled out Israel for implied characterization as racist, can unfortunately be expected to yield similar disdain of the ideals it claims to represent.

Australia joins the ranks of Canada, Israel, the United States, the Czech Republic, Italy and The Netherlands in their decision not to attend the conference. B’nai B’rith is hopeful that other nations will follow their example in standing together against an event that promotes intolerance and bigotry.

The B’nai B’rith Board of Governors passed a resolution earlier this year urging all nations to reject the prejudiced objectives of the World Conference.