UN to Celebrate 25th Anniversary of Disgraceful Durban I Hatefest

As America prepares to mark the 25^th anniversary of the horrific September 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda on the U.S. homeland, the United Nations is preparing to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of one of its most contemptible events. It will celebrate in late September the adoption of the Durban I Declaration and Programme of Action, the final outcome document of the antisemitic, anti-Western hatefest held in Durban, South Africa in September 2001.

The so-called ‘UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance’ turned out to be nothing more than a global platform high-jacked by pro-Palestinian agitators who leveled false charges of racism and apartheid against Israel.

At the Durban I conference, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat ranted to the delegates about what he charged was the “ugliness” of “Israeli racist policies and practices against the Palestinian people.” Cuban dictator Fidel Castro spoke of “the dreadful genocide perpetrated, at this very moment, against our Palestinian brothers.” Talk about pathological projection by two gross human rights abusers!

Jack Jedwab, who had been commissioned to produce a report for the Government of Canada's anti-racism secretariat, attended the 2001 Durban I conference and was shocked by what he observed. In an article published by the National Post on August 31, 2026, Mr. Jedwab wrote:

“Copies of ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ the notorious antisemitic forgery, were circulated. Posters equated Israel with Nazi Germany. Leaflets and slogans blurred, sometimes deliberately, any distinction between criticism of Israeli government policy and hostility toward Jews as a people. Conduct that would have been immediately condemned had it targeted virtually any other minority was tolerated, rationalized or ignored when directed at Jews.”

“That was the disturbing innovation of Durban. It helped globalize the effort to recast the hatred of Jews as political opinion. The very language of anti-racism was used to launder antisemitic expression. Jews were not denied the right to be protected in theory; rather, they were told that the hostility directed at them was not really hatred at all, but solidarity with the oppressed, anti-colonial activism or resistance to imperialism…It transformed Jews from a historically persecuted minority into the symbolic embodiment of oppression.”

The blood libel against Israel has worsened since then at the United Nations and throughout the world.

Durban I and its successor conferences were the evil offshoots of the despicable 1975 “Zionism-is-Racism” General Assembly resolution that was revoked by the General Assembly in 1991. The “Zionism-is-Racism” General Assembly resolution itself is no longer in force, but its spirit has lived on stronger than ever throughout the UN system.

The Trump administration has declared that it will boycott the Durban Declaration 25^th anniversary celebration, which will be held at UN headquarters on September 28^th during the high-level General Assembly week that is attended annually by world leaders. United States diplomat Jeff Bartos, the American ambassador to the UN for Management and Reform, sharply condemned the grotesque operation:

“The Durban conference was an utter failure,” he said. “Worse, it platformed and promoted antisemitism, anti-capitalism, anti-Westernism and anti-Americanism. The UN continues to poison its brand by commemorating Durban. Twenty-five years on, the world has seen where Durban's ideology leads: racism, ideological litmus tests, discrimination, and on and on. It is well past time to burn and bury Durban’s stained legacy.”

Ambassador Bartos’s statement is spot-on. It follows the precedent set by the U.S. delegation’s withdrawal from the original Durban conference in 2001 under the leadership of former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, looking back at the original Durban conference, said that “What happened at Durban was truly Orwellian. That was a tipping point for the laundering of antisemitism at the UN. What emerged from Durban was the metastasized, newly legalized antisemitism under the cover of the UN. This singling out of Israel has continued to metastasize since. Durban is the ‘Mein Kampf’ of today.” He added, ““I can still hear the chants at Durban… the struggle against apartheid requires a dismantling of Israel.”

UN Watch, a pro-Israel non-governmental organization, posted a petition stating that “all governments should decline to attend ‘Durban 25’ unless “that event officially renounces the elements of the Durban Declaration that single out Israel, and the antisemitic events leading up to and surrounding the Durban conference.”

Which countries will join the United States and do the right thing by refusing to participate in an anniversary celebration of antisemitism on steroids? Is Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney listening?