South African Jews are bracing themselves for a possible
repeat of what transpired at last year's Durban anti-racism
conference when the World Summit on Sustainable Development
(WSSD) takes place in Johannesburg in August this year.
The 2001 World Conference Against Racism made the city of
Durban a term of opprobrium throughout the Jewish world for
the manner in it was hijacked by Arab-Islamic elements and
turned into an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate fest. The
WSSD is the second major United Nations conference to be
hosted by South Africa inside two years and is expected to be
the largest such gathering to have taken place on the African
continent. It will be much larger than last year's
conference. Whereas Durban drew 10,000 participants from all
over the world, Johannesburg is expecting 65,000.
While the terms of reference of the WSSD do not allow for
sweeping general attacks on Israel, its agenda provides
considerable scope for attacking it on specific environmental
and sustainable development-related issues, such as the
supposed harmful effects of foreign occupation on the
Palestinian economy and the alleged monopolizing of water
resources in the West Bank for the benefit of Jewish
settlers. In preparatory committee meetings, the Arab states
have succeeded in getting numerous references to foreign
occupation as an impediment to sustainable development
included on the agenda.
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), as was
the case with Durban, is again coordinating the efforts of
the Jewish caucus group. At the behest of the Board, a major
meeting of international Jewish organizations took place in
Jerusalem last month to plan for the summit. Thus far, there
has been little indication that a coordinated campaign
against Israel will take place, although some form of attack
is nevertheless expected. The meeting was attended by
representatives of the Israeli government, including Deputy
Foreign Minister Michael Melchior, the World Jewish Congress,
the American Jewish Committee and the representative bodies
of South African, Australian, Canadian and UK Jewry.
While delegates recognized that the WSSD posed a possible
threat to Israel, it was also seen as presenting an excellent
opportunity to showcase what Israel was doing for sustainable
development worldwide, particularly in Africa. Attempts will
be made to showcase Israeli upliftment and development
projects as a means of improving Israel's image.
In the course of the meeting, a Jewish caucus group was
formed to participate in the Summit, and the SAJBD was
mandated to coordinate its activities. The SAJBD is
prominently represented on the official bodies planning the
Summit, chairing the Inter-faith lobby for the NGO conference
(called the Global Forum), and sitting on the Executive
committee of the Management of the Secretariat responsible
for organizing the NGO conference.
As part of the lesson learned from Durban -- where the street
and the battle for the media and public opinion vied with the
diplomats -- a strong student delegation will be sent to
Johannesburg in the knowledge that they will be the real
"soldiers in the field," as they were last year.
The Durban conference was the apex of a process that has
become evident: today's international conferences have become
one of the central anti-Israeli arenas in the world. With the
exception of the first few years when the influence of the
Holocaust was still felt, and before the Cold War, the UN has
never been a favorable arena for Israel.
The anti-Israeli campaign is waged not only at the mega-
conferences but also at smaller international gatherings,
both those directly connected with the UN and those of
professional organizations such as health, labor and
welfare.
Yaakov Levy, Israel's ambassador to the UN organizations in
Geneva, where many of these groups meet, relates that "the
past two years have been particularly difficult. The Arabs
try to utilize every opportunity, no matter what the topic,
to focus the debate on Israel's `crimes.' "
The tactic is to tie every topic to the Israeli- Palestinian
conflict. Thus when the World Health Organization meets,
Israel is charged with preventing free movement of sick and
wounded Palestinians; at a geriatric conference, the fate of
Palestinian elderly under occupation comes up for discussion;
and at an environmental meet, the Palestinians' problems with
water are discussed.
The condemnations of Israel have a clear political aim: to
turn Israel in the international arena into a second "South
Africa" under apartheid, a country of pariahs that has to be
shunned and disgraced, against whom sanctions must be brought
that will interfere with its ability to defend itself. That
is why there are repeated attempts to define Israel as an
"apartheid state."
