A UN anti-racism summit opens in Geneva this morning with empty seats after the US became the most prominent country yet to stay away over concerns that Israel would be singled out for criticism in the final declaration.
Israel, Italy, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands will also stay away from the five-day talks to assess progress in the worldwide fight against racism and xenophobia since the last such meeting in South Africa in 2001.
There are also concerns over the conference’s opening speech from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
He has described the Holocaust as a “myth”, and has called for Israel to be “wiped from the map”; western diplomats are worried of more of the same in this morning’s speech.
Israeli officials have condemned the anti-racism conference as a “hypocrisy summit”.
“The fact that a racist like Ahmadinejad is the main speaker proves the true aim and nature of the conference,” said Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Disagreement persists over a demand by Muslim countries, still angry at the Danish Muhammad caricatures, to define incitement to religious hatred as a kind of racism. This has left western leaders nervous at what might be seen in their countries as a curtailment of freedom of speech.
Washington and Dutch officials in particular have expressed concern that a draft agreement to curb “incitement” on religious grounds could be used to silence criticism of Islam.
“Some countries that still have a long way to go in the human rights domain are misusing the summit to put religion above people’s rights and to unnecessarily restrict freedom of speech,” said Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen.
Israel and the US walked out of the 2001 UN talks, complaining that Arab countries wanted to link Zionism and Israel to racism.
The 2001 draft document expressed “deep concern” at the “increase of racist practices of Zionism and anti-Semitism”.
It went on to discuss the emergence of “movements based on racism and discriminatory ideas, in particular the Zionist movement, which is based on racial superiority”.
Britain has already decided to send a delegation, though without any senior officials. Other EU leaders were expected to decide late last night.
Pope Benedict XVI called on conference participants to work together “with a spirit of dialogue and reciprocal acceptance to put an end to every form of racism, discrimination and intolerance”.