The Obama administration quietly announced this weekend that it would boycott an international conference about racism and discrimination because of concerns that the conference unfairly singles out Israel for criticism and because the conference may set the stage for restrictions on free speech.
The United Nations conference is set to begin tomorrow in Geneva, Switzerland.
Protesting what their leaders see as anti-Semitic and anti-Israel overtones to the conference, Australia, Canada, Israel, Italy and Sweden are also not sending delegations.
Acting U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood Saturday issued a statement saying that the 2009 Durban Review Conference draft outcome document "still contains language that reaffirms in toto the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) from 2001, which the United States has long said it is unable to support" because it "singles out one particular conflict and prejudges key issues that can only be resolved in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians."
"Its inclusion in the review conference document has the same effect as inserting that original text into the current document and re-adopting it," Wood said. In addition, he added that the United States "also has serious concerns with relatively new additions to the text regarding 'incitement,' that run counter to the U.S. commitment to unfettered free speech." Earlier drafts of the document expressed disapproval of any "defamation of religion."
Wood said: "Therefore, with regret, the United States will not join the review conference."
There were two purposes to this conference - blame Israel for the world's problems and draft a document that said you couldn't sad bad things about Islam. We're absolutely right to get as far away from this thing as possible.
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