So Much the US cared about Human Rights - OBAMA BOWS TO PRESSURE: Drops U.S. from Major Anti-Racism Conference

OBAMA BOWS TO PRESSURE: Drops U.S. from Major Anti-Racism Conference

http://eurweb.com/story/eur51521.cfm

Even with a Black man as president, the U.S. government appeared ready last week to bow to Jewish pressure and boycott a major international conference designed to combat racism.

The conference, informally known as the Durban Review, is scheduled for April with the aim of evaluating progress toward the goals of the 2001 “World Summit against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.”

The 2001 Summit was held in Durban, South Africa. But under heavy pressure from American Jewish organizations and the state of Israel, the U.S. State Department announced last week that it will probably boycott the April gathering because preliminary documents unfairly criticize Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestinian lands and its often brutal and racist treatment of the Palestinian people.

The U.S. is also opposed to language which calls for reparations for slavery and Arab recommendations which it says might restrict freedom of speech.

Thus far the only nations which appear ready to follow the U.S. boycott are Israel and Canada. Several U.S. human rights groups are denouncing the U.S. boycott plans but led by the Anti-Defamation League, most major American Jewish organizations are applauding it. (source: Taylor Media Services)