| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 6:16 am Post subject: U.S. boycotts racism conference says it 'singles out' Israel |
| Mearsheimer/Walt book ( http://www.israellobbybook.com & http://tinyurl.com/yvlm6d ) validated yet again with the following:
U.S. boycotts racism conference, says it 'singles out' Israel
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/18/U.S.racism.conference
NEW: Congressional Black Caucus "deeply dismayed" by decision
U.S. says U.N. conference conflicts with "commitment to unfettered free speech"
Administration warned of boycott 2 months ago if changes to document weren't made
Current draft is improved, but "remaining concerns" cause U.S. to shun forum
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is boycotting a U.N. conference on racism next week over a document that "singles out" Israel in its criticism and conflicts with the nation's "commitment to unfettered free speech," the U.S. State Department said Saturday.
The Obama administration made the decision not to attend the Durban Review Conference in Geneva "with regret," a State Department statement said.
Two months ago, the administration had warned that it would boycott the conference if changes were not made to the document to be adopted by the conference. In recent weeks, discussions over the document have fueled several revisions, but the changes to the language didn't meet U.S. expectations, the statement said.
The current draft is "significantly improved," but "it now seems certain these remaining concerns will not be addressed in the document to be adopted by the conference next week."
State Department officials say the document contains language that reaffirms the Durban Declaration and Programme of Actions from the 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa, which the United States has said it won't support. The 2001 document "prejudges key issues that can only be resolved in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians," the statement said.
Disagreements over the Middle East and slavery that year had threatened to derail the conference goal of creating a global blueprint for fighting discrimination. At the time, Israel had said it was disappointed so much of the conference had focused on its relations with Palestinians.
The Obama administration also said recent additions to the document regarding "incitement" contradict the United States' stance on free speech.
Still, the United States "will continue to work assiduously" with all nations "to combat bigotry and end discrimination," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Congressional Black Caucus said it was "deeply dismayed" by the decision made by the nation's first African-African president, saying it was inconsistent with administration policies.
"Had the United States sent a high-level delegation reflecting the richness and diversity of our country, it would have sent a powerful message to the world that we're ready to lead by example," the statement said. "Instead, the administration opted to boycott the conference, a decision that does not advance the cause of combating racism and intolerance, but rather sets the cause back."
CNN's Scott Spoerry contributed to this report.
All AboutRacism and Bigotry Israel U.S. Department of State Middle East Conflict U.S. Congressional Black Caucus
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http://blogs.bet.com/news/newsyoushouldknow/us-may-boycott-un-racism-conference/
U.S. May Boycott U.N. Racism Conference
March 2nd, 2009 Sounding a lot like the Bush administration eight years ago, the Obama administration announced Friday that it might steer clear of the United Nation-sponsored anti-racism conference. The Obama administration is insisting that the U.N. Human Rights Council modify its final document, dropping all anti-Israel references. In 2001, the Bush administration refused to participate in the Durbin, South Africa-based conference because the draft resolution targeted Israel and its treatment of Arabs. Zionism, Israels movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state, is a racist one, the statement said. Eight years ago, just like today, the United States was under intense pressure from Jewish lobbyists and conservative groups to boycott the conference. This year, Canada has joined Israel in renouncing the conference, and several European nations reportedly are also considering staying home from the World Conference Against Racism, which will be held in Geneva from April 20-25. The Obama administration is waiting to see the progress on conference negotiations before deciding whether the United States will participate. But early indications are that theres a ways to go. On Friday, the State Department said that in its current form, the statement looks too much like the one from 2001. Sadly
the document being negotiated has gone from bad to worse, and the current text of the draft outcome document is not salvageable, spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement. As a result, the United States will not engage in further negotiations on this text, nor will we participate in a conference based on this text.
We would be prepared to re-engage if a document that meets these criteria becomes the basis for deliberations.
Last edited by Alpha on Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:14 pm; edited 1 time in total | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:01 am Post subject: |
| UN global conference on racism set to open
By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER, Associated Press Writer Bradley S. Klapper, Associated Press Writer 50 mins ago
GENEVA The United Nations' global conference on racism opens Monday without the U.S. or at least seven other countries who have boycotted the event out of concern that Islamic countries will demand that it denounce Israel and ban criticism of Islam.
The administration of President Barack Obama, America's first black head of state, announced Saturday that it would boycott "with regret" the weeklong meeting in Geneva, which already is experiencing much of the bickering and political infighting that marred the 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa.
The Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand announced their boycotts Sunday, while Australia, Canada, Israel and Italy already had said they would not attend.
The French foreign minister said his country's ambassador to Geneva would attend, but would walk out "immediately" if the conference turned into a platform for racist comments against Israel. Britain had earlier said it would attend.
Obama, speaking in Trinidad on Sunday after attending the Summit of the Americas, said: "I would love to be involved in a useful conference that addressed continuing issues of racism and discrimination around the globe."
But he said the language of the U.N.'s draft declaration risked a reprise of Durban, during which "folks expressed antagonism toward Israel in ways that were often times completely hypocritical and counterproductive."
"We expressed in the run-up to this conference our concerns that if you adopted all of the language from 2001, that's not something we can sign up for," Obama said.
"Hopefully some concrete steps come out of the conference that we can partner with other countries on to actually reduce discrimination around the globe, but this wasn't an opportunity to do it," he said.
At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI said the conference is needed to eliminate racial intolerance around the world. Asia News, a Catholic news agency that is part of the missionary arm of the Vatican, said of the pope's comment: "The Holy See is distancing itself from the criticisms of some Western countries."
U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay, who is hosting the conference, said she was "shocked and deeply disappointed" by the U.S. decision not to attend.
She conceded some countries were focusing solely on one or two issues to the detriment of the fight against intolerance, but said it is essential that the issue of racism be tackled globally.
The major sticking points regarding the proposed final U.N. declaration are its implied criticism of Israel and an attempt by Muslim governments to ban all criticism of Islam, Sharia law, the prophet Muhammad and other tenets of their faith.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who repeatedly has called for the destruction of Israel and denied the Holocaust is slated to speak on the first day.
He arrived in Geneva on Sunday evening and met privately with President Hans-Rudolf Merz of Switzerland, the country that represents the diplomatic interests of the United States in the Islamic republic.
The pullout of Germany is significant since it has played a leading role in U.N. anti-racism efforts as a result of its troubled historical legacy. In recent meetings, it has expressed dismay about some governments' attempts to downplay the significance of the Holocaust.
Germany said Sunday that it made its boycott decision after consulting with other European Union nations.
"This decision was not easy," said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "As in Durban in 2001, this conference could be abused by others as a platform for their interests. We cannot accept that," he said.
The bland U.N. draft statement does not mention Israel by name, but it reaffirms the Durban statement and its reference to the plight of Palestinians. That document was agreed after the United States and Israel walked out over attempts to liken Zionism the movement to establish a Jewish state in the Holy Land to racism.
Israel and Jewish groups have lobbied hard against Western participation in the meeting, arguing that the presence alone of American and European negotiators would give legitimacy to what they fear could become an anti-Semitic gathering.
On Sunday, Israel's Foreign Ministry thanked the boycotters and predicted the conference would "once again serve as a platform to denigrate Israel and single it out for criticism."
Still, after years of preparations there appears little evidence to validate these fears. The statement of 2001 that is so contentious now was cheered in Israel at the time, as it recognized the Jewish state's right to security.
Regarding its boycott, the Obama administration said it could not endorse any statement that singled out Israel or included passages demanding a ban on language considered an "incitement" of religious hatred. Such calls "run counter to the U.S. commitment to unfettered free speech," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood.
Many Muslim nations want curbs to free speech to prevent insults to Islam they claim have proliferated since the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. They cite the 2005 cartoons of Muhammad published by a Danish newspaper that sparked riots in the Muslim world.
European countries also have criticized the meeting for focusing heavily on the West and ignoring problems of racism and intolerance in the developing world.
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Associated Press writer Frank Jordans contributed to this report from Geneva. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:02 am Post subject: Iran grabs spotlight at UN anti-racism meeting |
| Iran grabs spotlight at UN anti-racism meeting
1 hr 23 mins ago
GENEVA (AFP) A UN anti-racism conference opens in disarray Monday amid a Western boycott and fears that Iran's president will use the venue to launch a new verbal onslaught on Israel.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- who has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and described the Holocaust as a "myth" -- arrived in Geneva late Sunday as one of the few heads of state attending the conference.
Setting off for Switzerland, Ahmadinejad, who is seeking re-election in June, was quoted by Iran's state broadcaster as saying "the Zionist ideology and regime are the flag bearers of racism."
Similar sentiments expressed by Arab and African countries eight years ago prompted a US and Israeli walkout during the World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa.
The five-day Geneva follow-up this week descended into what Israel called a "tragic farce" even before it started.
The Paris-based European Jewish Congress said in a statement that Ahmadinejad's presence meant the United Nations had "put the fox in charge of the hen house."
The US government's decision Saturday to join Canada and Israel in staying away from Geneva snowballed as Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and New Zealand followed.
"Regrettably, we cannot be confident that the review conference will not again be used as a platform to air offensive views, including anti-Semitic views," Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.
US President Barack Obama defended Washington's stance, saying that despite progress in negotiations in recent weeks, anti-Israel language in a draft final communique was "oftentimes completely hypocritical and counterproductive".
"If we have a clean start, a fresh start, we're happy to go" to a future meeting, he told reporters at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad.
The European Union's traditional show of unity on international human rights unravelled, as Britain, France and Ireland decided to attend.
Japan also decided to send a delegation led by its ambassador to Geneva Shinichi Kitajima and expressed disappointment that the United States was boycotting the event.
"I regret that the United States cannot participate in the conference," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told reporters.
The Geneva meeting is meant to take stock of progress in fighting racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance since the 2001 Durban World Conference Against Racism.
But the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, who was "shocked and deeply disappointed" by Washington's decision, underlined recently that the international goals set in Durban had simply not been achieved.
"Eight years on, anti-racism pledges and measures have not yet succeeded in relegating discriminatory practices and intolerance to the heap of history?s repugnant debris," said Pillay.
Campaign group Human Rights Watch faulted boycotting states for "turning their backs" on victims of racism.
Monday is the 120th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth and also marks the start of Holocaust commemoration events, including a ceremony in Geneva attended by Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel among leading Jewish figures. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:11 pm Post subject: |
| Iran's leader sparks Western walkout at UN meeting
By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer 5 mins ago
GENEVA Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the West of using the Holocaust as a "pretext" for aggression against Palestinians, prompting European diplomats to walk out Monday from a speech disrupted by jeering protesters in rainbow wigs tossing red clown noses at the hardline leader.
A U.N. racism conference on the eve of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day disintegrated into chaos moments after Ahmadinejad became the first government official to take the floor. Two protesters in wigs tossed the noses at Ahmadinejad as he recited a Muslim prayer to begin his speech.
A Jewish student group from France later took credit for causing the disturbance, saying members were trying to convey "the masquerade that this conference represents."
Ahmadinejad restarted his talk and delivered a speech that lasted more than a half-hour, saying the United States and Europe had helped establish Israel after World War II at the expense of Palestinians.
"They resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering," he said.
That prompted a walkout by some 40 diplomats from Britain and France and other European countries that had threatened to leave the conference if it descended into anti-Semitism or other rhetoric harshly critical of Israel, which marred the U.N.'s last racism gathering eight years ago in South Africa.
The United States and eight other Western countries were already boycotting the event because of concerns about its fairness.
Ahmadinejad went on to accuse Israel of being the "most cruel and repressive racist regime."
Protesters held placards reading "This is a circus. A racist cannot fight racism," and repeatedly interrupted the speech with shouts of "Shame! shame!" and "Racist! racist!"
Later, about 100 members of mainly pro-Israel and Jewish groups tried to block Ahmadinejad's entrance to a scheduled news conference.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon met with Ahmadinejad before his speech and said he had counseled the Iranian leader to avoid dividing the conference. Ban later said he was disappointed Ahmadinejad had used his speech "to accuse, divide and even incite," directly opposing the aim of the meeting.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry condemned Ahmadinejad's speech and Ban's meeting with the Iranian leader.
"It is unfortunate that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deemed it appropriate to meet with the greatest Holocaust denier of our time, the head of a U.N. member state who calls for the destruction of another UN member state. This matter is especially severe, as it took place on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day," Israel said.
Ahmadinejad has been praised by some in the Muslim world for calling for Israel's destruction and for other anti-Israeli comments. The hard-liner has often used international forums to criticize Israel including at last year's U.N. General Assembly where he said Israel was on "a definite slope to collapse."
But his comments Monday could also further strain efforts to improve relations with the United States, Israel's top ally. Iran has been mostly lukewarm to overtures from President Barack Obama, but last week Ahmadinejad said the Islamic Republic was ready for a new relationship with Washington.
Alejandro Wolff, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, denounced "the Ahmadinejad spectacle" and the Iranian president's "vile and hateful speech."
"It's inaccurate. It shows disregard for the organization to which he is speaking, the United Nations, and does a grave injustice to the Iranian nation and the Iranian people," Wolff told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.
"We call on the Iranian leadership to show much measured, moderate, honest and constructive rhetoric when dealing with issues in the region, and not this type of vile, hateful, inciteful speech that we all saw ... this morning," he said.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said Britain would return to the talks but "unreservedly condemns his offensive and unacceptable remarks."
"He ascribed all the problems relating to racism in the modern world to Israel and the Jewish state, and that was enough for me to walk out," British Ambassador Peter Gooderham said.
In Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned what he called "an intolerable call to racist hate" and urged a firm reaction by the European Union.
Ahmadinejad's speech also took aim at the United States for its role in the global economic crisis and at Western countries for imposing unfair economic conditions on the developing world. Among his more brazen claims was the allegation that Zionists instigated the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in concert with weapons manufacturers.
Iran's state TV broadcast pictures showing some delegates cheering and other delegates leaving the conference.
"The president confidently continued his speech despite efforts by some Western diplomats to disrupt his address," it said.
But Ahmadinejad's anti-Israel remarks may not be well-received among many others in Iran. Ahmadinejad is up for re-election in June, but his popularity has been waning as Iran's economy struggles with high-inflation and unemployment. Many have criticized Ahmadinejad for spending too much time on anti-Israel and anti-Western rhetoric and not enough on the country's economy.
Ahmadinejad, as head of state, had the right to speak and did not need a U.N. invitation to the weeklong event aimed at stamping out intolerance worldwide.
Joining the U.S. as boycotters were Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand and Poland.
And even before Ahmadinejad's speech, Israel withdrew its ambassador from Switzerland on Monday in a harsh diplomatic response to a pre-conference dinner shared by Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz and Ahmadinejad. In their Sunday night conversation, Merz pressed the case of a jailed American journalist in Iran, acting in Switzerland's role as the official representative of U.S. interests in Iran.
The Swiss government said it also took up other "unresolved cases" of U.S.-Iranian relations in the meeting, which occurred Sunday night hours after Obama said the United States would communicate with Iran about journalist Roxana Saberi through Swiss intermediaries.
Speaking directly after Ahmadinejad's speech, Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store said the Iranian leader's comments "run counter to the very spirit of dignity of the conference."
Ahmadinejad "has made Iran the odd man out," he said.
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Associated Press writers Bradley S. Klapper and Eliane Engeler in Geneva and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:10 pm Post subject: Netanyahu: No second Holocaust against Jews |
| Netanyahu: No second Holocaust against Jews
By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer Mark Lavie, Associated Press
Writer Mon Apr 20, 3:15 pm ET
JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Monday not to allow Holocaust deniers the chance to carry out a second Holocaust against the Jewish people.
He spoke at the ceremony marking Israel's annual memorial day for the 6 million Jews killed by Nazis and their collaborators during World War II, but the event fell under the shadow of a U.N. anti-racisim conference in Geneva perceived in Israel as anti-Semitic.
Netanyahu criticized the president of Switzerland for meeting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the conference. Netanyahu said the Iranian leader, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, has denied the existence of the Holocaust.
"We will not allow the Holocaust deniers to carry out another Holocaust against the Jewish people. This is the supreme duty of the state of Israel. This is my supreme duty as prime minister of Israel," Netanyahu said, speaking at Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial and study center.
Earlier Monday at the conference in Geneva, the Iranian president accused Israel of being the "most cruel and repressive racist regime" and the West of using the Holocaust as a "pretext" for aggression against Palestinians. His comments prompted European diplomats to walk out of the conference.
In research released to coincide with the memorial day, a study found that anti-Semitic incidents worldwide declined in 2008 but spiked during Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip in January. A demographer calculated that if the Holocaust had not occurred, the world's Jewish population would be more than double now.
Also, Yad Vashem has been upgrading its Web site to offer research tools. Its latest entry is "The Untold Stories," devoted to documenting the massacres of Jews in small and medium-sized communities that had been lost to history.
In its annual report on anti-Semitism, The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University found that anti-Jewish incidents dropped 11 percent in 2008, including 560 cases of violence, compared to 632 in 2007.
But Israel's military offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip reversed the trend. The researchers estimated that there were 1,000 incidents during January, more than 10 times the number in January 2008.
The study counted both violent incidents and verbal and visual expressions and said that 90 of the January incidents fit the violent category, three times the number of the previous January. While violent attacks dipped in February and March, verbal and visual anti-Israel and anti-Jewish expressions had not subsided.
The Israeli researchers, working in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress, noted a theme in anti-Israel demonstrations: equating Israel with Nazi Germany, with signs incorporating the Israeli star with the Nazi swastika. The report said the intention was "to underline that if Nazism, the monster of the modern era, has no right to exist, then the Jewish state and its supporters, too, should be eliminated."
The mass slaughter of Jews in Europe has cost the Jewish people at least half its population, according to calculations by demographer Sergio DellaPergola of Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He built a model that projected that without the Holocaust, there would be between 26 million and 32 million Jews in the world today. DellaPergola said in an earlier study that as of the beginning of 2008, there were about 13 million Jews worldwide.
He figured in several factors, including destruction of cultural frameworks, increased intermarriage as a way of avoiding oppression and the high proportion of children, more than 1 million, among the victims.
"Untold Stories," the new feature on the Yad Vashem Web site, documents 51 small and medium sites in German-occupied areas of the former Soviet Union it says have not been chronicled up to now. At the top of the page is a picture of a scrap of paper with a few Yiddish lines on it, found in a woman's clothing at the site of a mass murder in Lithuania.
"My dearest, before I die, I am writing a few words," it says. "We are about to die, 5,000 innocent people. They are cruelly shooting us."
The memorial day, which began after sunset, continues Tuesday with the sounding of air-raid sirens for a nationwide minute of silence in memory of the victims, followed by an official wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem. In honor of the solemnity of the day, restaurants, bars and places of entertainment are closed in Israel.
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On the Web:
http://www.yadvashem.org/ | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:27 am Post subject: |
| Iran's leader sparks walkout, shouts of 'shame'
Western diplomats leave U.N. race meeting, protesters throw objects
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30304767/ | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:44 pm Post subject: Ahmadinejad dropped Holocaust denial from speech |
| Ahmadinejad dropped Holocaust denial from speech
By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER and ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writers Bradley S. Klapper And Alexander G. Higgins, Associated Press Writers 1 hr 3 mins ago
GENEVA Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dropped language describing the Holocaust as "ambiguous and dubious" from a speech attacking Israel at a United Nations racism conference, the U.N. said Tuesday.
The U.N. and the Iranian Mission in Geneva did not comment on why the change was made, but U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that he had met with Ahmadinejad before his speech and reminded him that the U.N. had adopted resolutions "to revoke the equation of Zionism with racism and to reaffirm the historical facts of the Holocaust."
Ahmadinejad's accusation that the West used the Holocaust as a "pretext" for aggression against Palestinians still provoked walkouts by a stream of delegates including representatives of every European Union country in attendance. But others, including those from the Vatican, stayed in the room because they said he stopped short of denying the Holocaust.
The walkout came after Ahmadinejad accused Western nations of complicity in violence against Palestinians surrounding the foundation of Israel.
The original text of his speech said, "Following World War II, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless on the pretext of Jewish sufferings and the ambiguous and dubious question of Holocaust."
U.N. spokeswoman Marie Heuze said that U.N. officials had checked back with the interpreters and the Farsi recording of Ahmadinejad's speech, and determined that the Iranian president had dropped the terms "ambiguous and dubious," referring instead in Farsi to "the abuse of the question of the Holocaust."
The meeting turned chaotic almost from the start when two protesters in rainbow wigs tossed red clown noses at Ahmadinejad as he began his speech with a Muslim prayer. A Jewish student group from France said it had been trying to convey "the masquerade that this conference represents."
Some in attendance who disrupted the speech were expelled Tuesday.
The United States and eight other Western countries were already boycotting the event on the eve of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, because of concerns about its fairness.
In Paris, France's foreign minister said he was optimistic the U.N. could move on and approve a declaration by Tuesday night committing the world to fight racism.
Bernard Kouchner also criticized the administration of President Barack Obama when asked by a reporter about the U.S. decision to stay away from an event featuring Ahmadinejad while declaring itself open for negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.
"More than a paradox, it could really be a mistake," Kouchner said.
Most of Ahmadinejad's rhetoric was not new but its timing and high profile could complicate U.S. efforts to warm ties with the Islamic republic: Alejandro Wolff, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, denounced what he called "the Ahmadinejad spectacle."
The global body was nonetheless hopeful that the conference could turn the page on Ahmadinejad's appearance.
"In the drama of yesterday everyone forgot what the conference is actually about," U.N. spokesman Rupert Colville said. "I think we're back on track now."
In Tehran, around 200 people gathered at the airport to give Ahmadinejad a hero's welcome., welcoming him with bunches of flowers.
State TV described him as having defended Palestinian rights against a racist regime. The official IRNA news agency, which strongly supports Ahmadinejad, quoted lawmaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar as saying that Ahmadinejad's speech in Geneva was a "great achievement for the (Iran's ruling) system."
Iran's state television also said Tuesday that the parliament speaker has warned Israel against a possible attack on the country's nuclear facilities.
Conference organizers in Geneva had sought desperately to avoid the problems that marred the last global racism gathering eight years ago in Durban, South Africa. The U.S. and Israel walked out midway into that event over an attempt by Muslim countries to liken Zionism the movement to establish a Jewish state in the Holy Land to racism.
Even though any final document will have no enforceable measures, it has aroused great passion from all governments.
Israel is not mentioned anywhere in the declaration prepared for the current meeting, which seeks to avoid any offense but has angered many in the Muslim world for its failure to point the finger directly at the Jewish state for its treatment of Palestinians.
Also Tuesday, the U.N. said it expelled 13 people from the conference, including members of Jewish and Iranian groups that disrupted the speech by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It first said 375 had been excluded, but later called it a mistake to have barred additional individuals not directly linked to Monday's disruptions.
"At the United Nations we demand that conferences and debates be held in a spirit of mutual respect and dignity," Heuze said.
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Associated Press writers Frank Jordans in Geneva and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS number of expelled delegates from 375 to 13 to reflect new UN tally; DELETES quote 'It's paradoxical ...' to REMOVE INcorrect attribution to Kouchner;) | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
