September 24, 2008 – Washington – The American Jewish Committee (AJC) salutes unanimous passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of a resolution calling for high-level U.S. diplomatic leadership aimed at defeating the campaign to divert the UN’s Durban Review Conference into an attack on Israel and promotion of anti-Semitic hate.

“We are delighted that the resolution gained bipartisan support,” said Richard T. Foltin, AJC legislative director and counsel. “It is important for ensuring that the Durban Review Conference remains true to the cause of combating racism and racial discrimination, and that it is not diverted into another display of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel invective,” as occurred in 2001 at the original conference in South Africa.

The review conference is slated for April 2009 in Geneva. A second preparatory conference will take place next month.

AJC sent a letter of support to Rep. Howard Berman, chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, who originally introduced the resolution.

The resolution (H.Res.1361) serves two essential purposes. It affirmatively encourages U.S. governmental leadership in advance of the Durban Review preliminary meetings, while signaling that any U.S. diplomacy should be focused on, and conditioned on, correcting the venomous actions of a number of states and non-governmental organizations that politicized the initial conference through anti-Semitism and demonization of Israel, and have been threatening to do so again next year.

Secondly, the resolution recognizes the important and continuing role of the UN, through this and other forums, in addressing the deep-rooted social and economic ills of racial, ethnic and other forms of discrimination, including in particular the effects of slavery on African descendants in the Western Hemisphere, and the discriminatory treatment of Dalits, the Roma, women and others.

These important considerations are all reflected in the resolution that passed the House. “It constitutes an important statement of principle and a blueprint fro action,” said Foltin.