Via UNWatch:  Israel announced today that it would join Canada as the second country to stay away from the UN’s controversial “Durban II” conference on racism, to be held in Geneva in April 2009.

“Israel will not participate and will not legitimize the Review Conference, which will be used as a platform for further anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic activity,” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told a Jerusalem conference. “We call upon the international community not to participate in a conference which seeks to legitimize hatred and extremism under the banner of the “fight against racism.”

In reaction, Geneva-based UN Watch, the leading independent monitor of the United Nations human rights system, issued the following statement:

The latest draft of the Durban II declaration seeks to portray Israel as an enemy of humanity, using language lifted verbatim from the notorious 2001 Tehran declaration that led up to the original Durban debacle.

The countries that maliciously introduced this hateful rhetoric, and those who responded with moral indifference, bear full responsibility for Israel’s understandable decision today. When the forces of intolerance turn human rights into a political weapon, everybody loses.

In establishing red lines, France, Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and other democracies have promised to disengage from the Durban process if they are unable to remove the objectionable language—provisions that assault Israel as well as basic human rights principles. We expect them to act accordingly.

For more on the 2009 Durban Review Conference, click here

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