Ahead of the United Nations’ planned “Durban 25” commemoration on September 28, Hillel Neuer was interviewed by Ben Chertoff of HonestReporting to discuss how the notorious 2001 World Conference Against Racism became a global forum for antisemitism and the demonization of Israel.
Conversation Highlights:
Ben Chertoff: 25 years ago, the U.S. walked out of the World Conference Against Racism. Israel walked with them. What was that conference supposed to be, and what did it become?
Hillel Neuer: This was supposed to be the World Conference Against Racism, held in the new post-apartheid South Africa. And yet what happened really was a travesty. A conference that was supposed to be against racism became a conference that promoted racism. It devolved into a notorious hate fest.
There were thousands of people marching in Durban, South Africa, saying that Zionism is like Nazism. And there were pamphlets being distributed of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the czarist forgery that accuses the Jews of a plot to control the world. This was happening on the sidelines.
At the main conference itself, Israel was the only country singled out as an alleged perpetrator of racism by listing the Palestinians as the only group under the rubric of victims of racism. The NGO forum, which happened in parallel, accused Israel of words that are familiar today, but were not then, which was genocide and apartheid, crimes against humanity.
So much of the venom and the hate that we’re seeing today can be attributed back to what we saw at an international, so-called anti-racism, so-called human rights conference 25 years ago.
Ben Chertoff: Now, what is astounding is that on September 28th, the UN General Assembly will hold a high-level meeting marking 25 years since Durban. In plain terms, what’s actually going on in that room, and what does it say that this is still being celebrated?
Hillel Neuer: The Durban conference happened in 2001, and the United Nations has a practice of holding follow-up conferences to put new attention on the same issues. In 2009 they held the first follow-up conference, Durban 2. Our organization, UN Watch, played a key role in organizing counter-events. And then Durban 3 was the 10th anniversary in 2011. Fast-forward to 2021 for the 20th anniversary - that was Durban 4.
On September 28th, I expect that what we’re going to see possibly foreign ministers, but at least ambassadors, gather for a meeting to adopt a declaration reaffirming Durban. So we’re calling on all countries to pull out and have a petition on our website urging all countries to do so.
At the original Durban conference, the U.S. and Israel pulled out. In 2009, 10 countries pulled out. In the third time, there were 15 countries that pulled out. And the last time, five years ago, 38 countries pulled out. So we’re hoping to see the same. We hope that leading democracies who truly care about anti-racism will take a stand against antisemitism.
Ben Chertoff: Since October 7, there has been a global explosion of antisemitism. Has there been any movement in the UN structure to address that?
Hillel Neuer: Not really. On the contrary, I would say the United Nations has been a key driver of global antisemitism. Let’s keep in mind, just a couple of weeks after October 7th, the Secretary-General of the UN effectively gave legitimacy and justification for what Hamas did. That was shameful and it set a tone. You had Navi Pillay, who was head of the Commission of Inquiry targeting Israel, she echoed those terms.
You have the infamous rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, who supports Hamas. On October 7, she was saying it’s just a response to oppression and you have to see it in context. So you have numerous UN figures, especially at the Human Rights Council, condemning Israel. Has the UN done anything to stop antisemitism? No. On the contrary, the UN has been a global purveyor of antisemitism.
When these blood libels go around the world, that Israel is committing genocide or starving the Palestinians, which various UN-tainted agencies have claimed, then immediately Jews are called baby killers. And we’ve seen endless attacks against Jews around the world - in the United States, in the UK, in continental Europe, Canada, Australia - and the UN sadly bears a lot of the blame.
