Irwin Cotler spoke scathingly against the presence of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations on the 20th of April. He also denounced the comparison made between the self-defence actions of Tsahal and the Holocaust. Irwin Cotler spoke too of the fate of women in certain countries and said that international action had been very insufficient in the Darfur tragedy.
Dounia Ettaib, a Muslim and vice-president of the Association of Moroccan Women in Italy, reminded her audience that for the Koran “the sons of Israel are the people of God”. Speaking of the condition of women under Islam, the speaker said choices needed to be made: “What is most important, tradition or people? Sexism is a form of racism. Polygamy is a form of racism. The hijab is a form of racism. Genital mutilation is a form of racism. The interdictions weighing on Muslim women are a form of racism.”
Louis Georges Tin, the leader of CRAN (Representative Council of Black Institutions in France) and creator of the International Day against Homophobia, expressed his regret that issues relating to homosexuality had been left out of the scope of Durban II. “In Iran, homosexuals are hanged, in Saudi Arabia they are beheaded.”
For writer and philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, the Durban II conference had been hijacked by Ahmadinejad, “that assassin, that butcher of Human Rights. After the scandal of Durban I, after the scandal of Durban II, the central problem confronting the friends of Human Rights is how to strengthen the governance of the UN and in particular the Human Rights Council. We need to eliminate the clique of dictators, the small band of gangsters and hoodlums who have tried to turn the UN into a laundry shop for their own crimes.” For Bernard-Henri Lévy, something needs to be done about this very quickly. “Let us very quickly forget Durban 2, Ahmadinejad and his consorts, to prepare Geneva 3.”
The second part of the conference was chaired by Richard Prasquier, who insisted on the fact that the final text adopted by Durban II, despite the unfortunate but legally unavoidable reference to Durban I, was nevertheless a remarkable progress when compared to the reports that had been circulating in embassies for months.
This second meeting was organised by a coalition of major organisations including CRIF. It also included ACOM, AIJAC, AJC, B’nai Brith International, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Defend Jerusalem, EFI, European Coalition for Israel, Honestly Concerned, Israel Empowerment Fund, Legacy Heritage Fund, SIG FSCI, Stand With Us, The Israel Project, WIZO, WUJS. The honorary committee organising this meeting included a strong delegation from CRIF: Roger Cukierman, honorary president, Ariel Goldman and Meyer Habib, vice-presidents, and Francis Khalifat, treasurer.
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