ipu

The United States commended changes in the draft document for “Durban II” but said more was needed to entice it into joining the anti-racism conference.\n\nJewish groups had welcomed the U.S. decision earlier this year not to attend the event reviewing the original U.N. conference in Durban in 2001. The South Africa parley had devolved into an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish free-for-all, and the review conference April 20-24 in Geneva promised more of the same. Earlier versions of the “draft outcome document” singled out Israel and called for measures against “defamation of religion,” seen as a nod to Islamist extremists who seek to marginalize their critics.