Durban II

from ACT for America

“Durban II” is the UN conference scheduled for April, 2009, ostensibly to address issues such as racism. With Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Vice-Chairperson, such a conference would be a joke if it didn’t have such explosive and dangerous implications for worldwide freedom.

The draft document for the conference makes clear the threat it poses. It contains condemnations of “Islamophobia” and is an all-out assault against Israel and against speech that allegedly “defames” Islam.

This is the declared agenda of Islamists worldwide – to silence criticism of Islam. If they succeed, if countries in the West knuckle under to these fascist tactics, the long-term prospects of our resisting the tide of radical Islam will be dim indeed.

For the United States to attend this conference would be to legitimize these blatant assaults on free speech and legitimize the seething hatred, intolerance and anti-Semitism openly espoused by the likes of Ahmadinejad.

Please read the notice below and contact President-Elect Obama and/or Secretary of State-Designate Clinton at the contact information provided. They need to hear from us that it is categorically unacceptable for the United States to attend and legitimize this UN sponsored “hate-fest.”

Make your voice heard. Say “NO” to “Durban II.”

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From The Washington Times, December 11, 2008.

The United States Should not Attend Any Aspect of the Anti-Semitic Durban II Conference
Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize Laureate*	Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School	William Bennett, Former Secretary of Education	R. James Woolsey, Former Director, Central Intelligence	Bernard Lewis, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University
Martin Peretz, Editor-in-Chief, The New Republic	Michael Steinhardt, The Steinhardt Foundation	Sir Harold Evans, Author, The American Century	Norman Podhoretz, Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient	James Q. Wilson, Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient
Herbert I. London, Chairman Governing Council of the American Jewish Congress	Ali H. Alyami, Center for Democracy and Human Rights In Saudi Arabia	Michael Ledeen, Freedom Scholar	Seth Leibsohn, Fellow, Claremont Institute	Anne Bayefsky, EYEontheUN.org
Frank Macchiarola, President, St. Francis College	Brian T. Kennedy, President, The Claremont Institute	Leon Wieseltier, Literary Editor, The New Republic	Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institute	Father Alexander Karloutsos, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Manda Zand-Ervin, Alliance of Iranian Women	Dr. Phyllis Chesler, Author, Emerita Professor, CUNY	Shanaveon E. Pious, Ph.D., Chairman of Entrepreneurs University	Nina Rosenwald, Human Rights Voices	M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., President, American Islamic Forum for Democracy
* Resigned in protest from the group of eminent personalities before Durban I.

Join us in calling for the United States to say YES to racial and religious equality and freedom from anti-semitism by saying NO to attending the United Nations Durban II Conference. A 2008 U.S. State Department report on global anti-semitism highlighted the malicious role played by the 2001 United Nations Durban I Conference.

Durban I was, IN THEORY, intended to be an "anti-racism" conference. It was, in practice, anything but… Durban I ended just three days before 9/11. So deeply disturbed that the conference was hijacked by global harbingers of hate, that the United States and Israeli delegations walked out on principle in protest.

The agenda for Durban II? Scheduled for April 2009 the stated purpose of Durban II is to "further the implementation of the (2001) Durban Declaration." What does the Durban Declaration declare? That ISRAEL, and ONLY ISRAEL, is guilty of racism. And who sits on the Planning Committee for the Durban II Conference?

Make no mistake, this conference will not combat racism, but will promote and fuel hatred toward Israel, America and the free world. This conference will not be about the spread of free expression, but how to curb it. The United States has always been a world leader in the battle against anti-semitism. We walked away once in protest... let us now stay away on principle. Today, there is an immediate way to act against growing anti-semitism around the world ... say no to Durban II. Declare that the United States will not participate in a dialogue that promotes prejudice.

The United States has consistently opposed Durban II, its funding and planning. The latest October 2008 documents from the Planning Committee confirm that the Durban II platform will be used to demonize Israel and launch an attack on free speech. We ask President-elect Obama and Secretary of State-designate Clinton to take the next step and deny legitimacy to Durban II. We urge the United States to join the lead of Canada and Israel by announcing now that the U.S. will not fund or attend Durban II. Please make your views known-Write to the president-elect, secretary of state designate and Others-tell them to say no NOW, that America DECLINES to participate in the upcoming Durban II International Hatefest.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Secretary of State-Designate Hillary Clinton: 202-647-4000; website	President-Elect Barack Obama: 202-456-1111; email now!	Congressman Howard Berman (Chair, House Foreign Affairs Committee): 202-225-5021, 202-225-4695 website	Senator John Kerry: 202-224-2742, 202-224-8525; website
Sponsored by Lawrence Kadish, Human Rights Voices