Non-governmental organizations are able to participate in the sessions of the Preparatory Committee as observers. The Durban Review Conference and its preparatory process are state-driven and the agenda will be determined by governments. NGOs will be able to influence decisions in the same way as they do in other UN meetings.
Human Rights Watch was designated as the nominated charity (to recieve donated funds) in a facebook cause called "Boycott Israeli Apartheid". NGO Monitor wrote to HRW to highlight this in December.No reply was recieved from HRW. In January follow up research showed that HRW had been removed as the designated charity (without accepting any of the money). The cause currently does not have a designated charity.
At the United Nations of the 21st century there are precious few moments of moral clarity. Saturday, December 22 at 12:35 A.M. was one of them. 12:48 A.M. was another. On behalf of ordinary decent Americans everywhere, Ambassador Mark Wallace, U.S. Representative for United Nations Management & Reform, said no to U.N.-driven anti-semitism and attempts to decimate Israel on the political battlefield. At 12:35 A.M. Wallace, together with ambassadors from another 39 U.N. states, voted against using U.N. money to pay for Durban II a 2009 conference to be modeled on the infamous racist anti-racism conference held in Durban, South Africa six years ago.
At the United Nations, 'tis the season to bankroll hatred of Israel and America via pricey preparations for a 2009 gathering dubbed the "Durban Review Conference," or Durban II. Right now, plans have advanced from general talk of funding this jamboree out of the U.N. regular budget, and have homed in on a figure of $6.8 million which the U.N. budget committee is poised to approve.
Human Rights First tackles antisemitism - "The international community must take a firm stand against any hate crime against anyone, anywhere. No one community under threat should be left to stand alone in the face of violent hatred and bigotry."
"Dan Izenbergs interview with Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's chief researcher for the Arab-Israeli conflict zone (HR Issues were ignored at Annapolis, December 17th), highlights the dangerous halo effect enjoyed by so many NGOs. Rovera, as an Amnesty International representative, is mistakenly assumed to be a regional expert. Yet, not only does she spend little time in the region and speak limited Hebrew, but her analysis in Izenbergs interview is baffling - She omits to mention, let alone make the connection, between the reality of daily terror launched from Gaza while condemning Israeli government policy."
According to a December 16, 2007 Ha'aretz report, "an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars, loads of time and countless attempts at intensive Spanish-brokered talks between Israelis and Palestinians went down the drain," when a "peace gathering" scheduled to take place December 14-16 in Madrid The Forum for a Just Peace in the Middle East "collapsed before it could even get started."
Were there ever a case for America to reassess the way it finances international institutions, it would be the plan of the United Nations to mount a sequel to the Durban conference. Ostensibly a world conference against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, the original Durban conference began with such a farcical, over the top anti-Semitic and anti-American atmosphere that Secretary of State Powell, in one of his greatest acts, withdrew the American delegation in its entirety.
A December 7, 2007 Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) article reveals that a new foundation, the Israel Independence Fund, meant to provide an alternative to the New Israel Fund (NIF), will be set up by Israeli Nobel Laureate (Economics) Robert Aumann and Daphne Netanyahu, an Israeli law professor and Benjamin Natanyahus sister-in-law.
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