How the Durban Conference Spawned Global

There was much excitement when the United Nations selected Durban for its first ever World Conference Against Racism – and then, it all went wrong.

The streets of Durban overflowed with the vile stench of anti-Jewish racism and Jew hatred. So repugnant was the antisemitic vitriol, that Mary Robinson, the Irish UN Human Rights Commissioner declared “I am a Jew”.

On the eve of the fourth Durban Conference, with most of the western nations boycotting it in protest, we relive the story of how Durban spawned a global wave of antisemitism and led to the creation of the BDS movement with panellists:

Professor Irwin Cotler – former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Felice Gaer – Director American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights Ambassador

Tova Herzl – Israeli Ambassador to South Africa 2001-2003

Ahmed Shaheed – UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief

David Harris – CEO of the American Jewish Committee

Mary Kluk – President of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies and Vice President of the World Jewish Congress

Marc Pozniak – Vice National Chair of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies and Member of the Executive of the WJC

Tamar Lazarus – Past Chair of WIZO