SHARE: YouTube | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Twenty-five years after the infamous 2001 Durban Conference, the UN Human Rights Council held a session commemorating the event. Hillel Neuer took the floor to remind delegates of Durban’s true legacy.
What was billed as a World Conference Against Racism became a global platform for antisemitism. In the streets, demonstrators praised Hitler and threatened Jewish students. Antisemitic caricatures were distributed. Copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were openly sold. Israel alone was singled out in the official outcome document. Holocaust survivor and U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos called it “the most sickening display of hate for Jews” he had witnessed since the Nazi era.
Durban was a turning point. Antisemitism was repackaged in the language of human rights - “apartheid,” “racism,” “genocide.” Once embedded in UN discourse, that rhetoric spread to civil society, media, and campuses. Today, we see the consequences.
Watch Hillel Neuer’s full address at the UN Human Rights Council and judge for yourself whether the lesson of Durban has truly been learned.
Transcript of the Video:
President of the U.N. Human Rights Council:
We will now begin the high level panel discussion on the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Durban Declaration.
Deputy U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights:
The Durban Declaration and Program of Action is a global blueprint for racial justice.
Belarus:
The Durban Declaration and Program of Action were a milestone. It’s a milestone. It’s a moment to celebrate.
President of the U.N. Human Rights Council:
Now I call on the representative of United Nations Watch.
Hillel Neuer (UN Watch):
The United Nations yesterday celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Durban Conference, in a session of the Human Rights Council. I took the floor: “Mr. President, the measure of an event lies not in its aspirations, but in its legacy. Twenty-five years ago, in Durban, the UN convened a World Conference Against Racism. But this mission was betrayed.
It was turned into a conference for racism. In the streets, thousands of radical activists marched against Israel and Jews, some carrying signs praising Adolf Hitler. Jewish students were threatened. The Arab Lawyers Union handed out cartoons of hook-nosed Jews. Copies of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the notorious antisemitic forgery, were openly sold.
At the NGO Forum, Israel was declared a “racist apartheid state,” and accused of “genocide.” In the Durban outcome document, the Jewish state alone was singled out as a perpetrator of racism. Holocaust survivor and Congressman Tom Lantos called it “the most sickening and unabashed display of hate for Jews” he had witnessed since the Nazi era.
Durban was a turning point. Antisemitism was repackaged in the language of human rights. Ancient libels were given new terms: “apartheid,” “racism,” “genocide.” Once embedded in UN discourse, that vocabulary spread to civil society, media, and campuses. The singling out of the world’s only Jewish state-as uniquely evil-became normalized.
Today, we live with the consequences. Jews are attacked in the streets of major cities, targeted in synagogues, harassed on campuses. And when a mandate-holder of this Council publicly amplifies rhetoric describing the Jewish state as “the incarnation of evil” - and is backed by Iran and South Africa - we must ask: Has the lesson of Durban truly been learned?”
