WIESENTHAL CENTER LAUDS ISRAEL'S DECISION TO BOYCOTT DURBAN 2

SWC tells President-elect Obama-"Nothing good for Mideast peace or global human rights will come from Durban 2"

The Simon Wiesenthal Center lauded Israel's Foreign Minister's announcement that the Jewish State will not attend the United Nations Durban Review Conference slated for Geneva in early 2009. The Review Conference, also known as "Durban 2," is a follow-up to the UN Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa in August 2001. A large number of NGOs used the conference to condemn Israel and Jewish delegations.

"Israel's fate at this gathering is virtually sealed. It is already being labeled as a genocidal, apartheid regime," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, who was among the Jewish leaders who attended first Durban conference. Cooper called the conference "the worst internationally-sanctioned public display of anti-Semitism since the Nazi era."

"What can we expect when Iran, Libya and other anti-Israel regimes once again plan to co-opt the United Nations to delegitimize Israel? And what can we expect from the UN human rights council which is a rubber stamp for anti-Israel initiatives," Cooper added.

"We hope that President-elect Obama and the foreign policy team he is putting in place will see that as currently constituted, nothing good for Mideast peace and global human rights will come from this fatally flawed Conference," Cooper concluded.

Rabbi Cooper is currently in Jerusalem and will be meeting with Israeli officials to discuss the latest developments. The SWC is an accredited NGO at the UN and has been monitoring preparatory meetings linked to the Durban

2 Conference. He can be reached at 97 2 5243 16448