SEPTEMBER 16 • 2021 | 21

eral flyers lauding Hitler and 
indicating that the outcomes 
would have been favorable had 
he won — including no Israel. 
Neturei Karta — opponents of 
Zionism — stood in the streets 
showing their own placards 
declaring that Zionism was 
not Judaism and the like, shar-
ing the demonstrations with 
real Jew-haters.
The atmosphere in the huge 
and impressive media center 
was, fortunately, very different. 
There was a direct feed of all 
the public proceedings, as 
only a few journalists could be 
accommodated in the confer-
ence hall.
I personally did not 
encounter any direct violence, 
although there was some 
around the NGO conference. 
But the atmosphere at the 
Jewish Club was at times tense, 
with a police presence outside, 
as rumors circulated of possi-
ble violence against it (which 
never materialized).

Q: How would you summa-
rize or characterize the Durban 
Conference and its proceedings? 
MB: I would offer three 
main points: 
The Conference opened the 
way to public Jew-hatred after 
more than 50 years of such 
hatred skulking largely under-
ground in the West: Open 
antisemitism was just not 
polite, as opposed to the usual 
camouflage of anti-Zionism. 
Clear examples of this change 
can be seen in the Jews target-
ed physically last May during 
the Gaza war and, more dis-
turbingly, the tolerance of the 
blatant antisemitism of the 
“Squad” in U.S. Congress.
It resulted in wide accep-
tance of the old antisemitic 
view that the Jews (sorry, 
Zionists) were the source of 
all evil in the world. It became 
almost conventional wisdom 

in all too many public and pri-
vate circles.
It demonstrated the 
extent to which uncritical 
Palestinianism has become 
the leitmotif of the interna-
tional left. As a result, all other 
human rights issues since have 
been pushed aside, including 
the Uyghur genocide in China. 
Unfortunately, this still holds, 
and Durban IV will simply 
replay the old themes.

Q: Did you attend Durban 
II or III? If so, what was your 
experience? 
MB: No, I did not, as they 
were held in other countries.
Interestingly, though, I 
covered the U.N. Sustainable 
Development Conference in 
2002 in Johannesburg for JTA. 
Both the conference organizers 
and the South African author-
ities appeared to have learned 
something from the previous 
year’s fiasco. An attempt was 
made by the Palestinians and 
their supporters to hijack this 
conference as well, but their 
attempts failed, although the 
issue still formed a significant 
part of the proceedings. 

Q: In your opinion, what is 
the legacy of Durban I?
MB: To put it crudely, I don’t 
believe the Durban legacy was 
unique or special — it merely 
lanced the boil that had come 
to a head, letting all the poison 
out. The U.N. legacy, how-
ever, for moer than 50 years, 
has been one of overt racism 
against the Jews and Israel. 

Q: What are your expecta-
tions for the upcoming 20th 
anniversary celebration of 
Durban I?
MB: Same old, with possi-
bly some new wrinkles, if the 
bearers of the burden of hate 
have enough imagination. If 
not, more of the same. 

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