B’NAI BRITH CANADA PREPARED TO WITHDRAW DELEGATION FROM DURBAN

Senior Canadian Jewish Leadership Chose not to Attend

August 30, 2001

For Immediate Release

Toronto, August 30, 2001: B’nai Brith Canada today issued instructions to its delegation at the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) to be prepared to leave Durban on short notice. The environment has become increasingly poisoned by a deluge of antisemitic incidents, including vile anti-Jewish cartoons and literature. Only yesterday, a group of about 100 anti-Israel protestors disrupted a meeting of the Commission on Anti-Semitism, one of a series of commissions studying the various themes of the WCAR, shouting down the speakers and effectively preventing the plenary discussions from continuing. Jewish delegates have been taunted and heckled, and feel constantly threatened.

Based on the experiences of BBC delegates at two earlier preparatory conferences in Geneva, the organization decided that it would not dignify such blatantly antisemitic and anti-Israel proceedings with the presence of its President, Rochelle Wilner, and Executive Vice President, Frank Dimant. In order to monitor the proceedings and attempt to influence the language of conference declarations, BBC sent its Senior Legal Counsel David Matas and Dr. Karen Mock, Director of its League for Human Rights, to the NGO forum. It was hoped that common sense would prevail, and that the input of these experts could be instrumental in redirecting the conference to its original mandate.

Sadly, and despite the valiant efforts of BBC’s representatives, this has not been the case. The WCAR NGO Forum has been hijacked by advocates of the Palestinian cause, for whom the line between positive advocacy for one group and blatant racism directed towards another has disappeared. If the environment at Durban continues to deteriorate, B’nai Brith Canada will remove its delegation immediately.

Rochelle Wilner, President of B’nai Brith Canada, was outraged. “The UN World Conference Against Racism has turned into a UN endorsed World Racist Conference. The level of hate is shocking. It is unconscionable that the organizing body of this conference has allowed such a situation to occur. The sentiment and the language being used in Durban are reminiscent of an uglier time in history, when Jews were stigmatized and persecuted relentlessly. We have instructed our delegates to investigate the legal provisions against hate and incitement in South Africa.”

Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President, continued: “The events of the last few days shame and dishonour the United Nations. No other groups or individuals here have been targeted for abuse except Jews. It is very difficult to respect UN decisions relating to Israel when its silence on Jewish human rights issues is so complete that a UN conference is allowed to degenerate into such a blatantly anitsemitic circus.”

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B’nai Brith has been active since 1875 as the country's senior advocacy and volunteer agency.

For more information, please contact:
Rochelle Wilner or Frank Dimant at (416) 633-6224