Most of the participants at the third UN World Conference Against Racism arrived in Durban filled with cautious optimism, coming to raise critical issues of racial justice. Some were seeking reparations for the trans-Atlantic slave-trade, others for exposing the racist core of Zionism.
As delegates from around the world prepare to head for South Africa at the end of August to attend the UN Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (August 31-September 7), it is already clear that much intolerance exists even among the delegates who are working to hammer out a draft communiqué for the conference.
US diplomats have been working hard to ensure that Zionism does not appear on the agenda of the World Conference Against Racism, to be held in Durban, South Africa.