Durban II: Leaders meet Foreign Minister Stephen Smith
Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Robert Goot and President of the Zionist Federation of Australia Philip Chester have met with Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith to discuss Durban II.
The Durban 2 conference is scheduled to take place in Geneva between April 20 and 24, its purpose being to evaluate the progress made since the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Didscrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. The Durban 1 conference degenerated into an Israel-bashing exercise finding that “Zionism equates to racism” and calling for boycotts against the Jewish nation. Many nations walked out.
Following yesterday’s meeting, Goot and Chester said in a joint statement: “We expressed the community’s profound concern that the Durban II process was fundamentally flawed and that the most recent [February-20] version demonstrated the Conference will be a re-run Durban I, if not much worse.”
Foreign Minister Smith has already stated that Australia would consider its position if and when a suitable revised text was on the table.
