Assessment: Twenty years ago, a U.N. conference against racism was hijacked by a revival of the “Zionism is racism” canard. You can draw a straight line from there to the way critical race theory legitimizes anti-Semitism today.
JNS: Exactly 20 years ago, the egregious proceedings of the Durban Conference illustrated how the international community, and in particular, the United Nations had legitimized anti-Semitism. A conference whose purpose was to oppose racism was essentially hijacked by the Palestinians and their allies, who were eager to revive the United Nations’ since-rejected libel about Zionism being racism.
“ For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” Deut. 14:2
In an international community in which diversity and various expressions of national identity and self-determination were celebrated, only the Jews were told that the movement dedicated to their rights and self-determination was illegitimate.
The labeling of Israel as an apartheid state—an outrageous libel that gained new momentum after Durban and became a totem of the success of intersectionality, an ideology that became best known for its willingness to analogize the Palestinian war to destroy the one Jewish state on the planet with the struggle for civil rights in the United States and against racism everywhere.
Intersectionality and critical race theory, to which it’s closely related, were initially seen as far-left ideas with little impact on the real world. But from the perspective of 2021, it’s clear that what was embraced at Durban has led to directly to the current situation in which these toxic concepts have not only become embraced by the chattering classes, mainstream media and even leaders of the Democratic Party, but also have effectively given an unprecedented permission slip for anti-Semitism. Read More
