The Netherlands and France have sharply chastised the UN for singling out Israel in the preparatory text for its upcoming "Durban II" anti-racism conference, but said they are not yet ready to boycott the event. "I am deeply disturbed by the turn this event is taking," Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said on Tuesday in a speech before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. "The way in which the preparatory process for this conference has been proceeding suggests that it is unlikely to be a useful exercise."
| But they're still going, at least so far ... |
The previous night, in an address to a large dinner hosted by the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) in Paris, French Prime Minister Francois Filion warned that his country would withdraw if changes were not made to the draft text with regard to Israel.
On Friday, the US became the third country after Canada and Israel to announce it will not attend the April 20-24 event in Geneva, which is a follow-up conference to the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance that met in Durban, South Africa. |