Does holding this week's anti-racism conference in Geneva prove the impossibility of denouncing racist Israeli practices, or a step towards revealing the true face of the Zionist entity? Tareq Al-Homayed wrote that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's address in Switzerland which accused Israel of being a racist state is just a diluted version of past speeches and statements that he delivered. Ahmadinejad previously threatened to wipe Israel off the map, and has described it as an illegal entity. In addition, he said that the Nazi holocaust is a myth and that Israel could not last forever. Thus his speech before Durban II, directed at the Arab and Islamic world, repeated previous speeches and threats and pushed the international community to show support for Israel either by members leaving the hall during his speech or boycotting the conference altogether. "We do not need words, speeches or even threats; we need action," Al-Homayed wrote in the London-based political daily Asharq Al-Awsat. The real action that Iran made in the conference was issuing a judicial decree to retry the Iranian- American journalist Roxana Saberi, sentenced to eight years for spying, in a fair trial. The other step was Ahmadinejad's meeting with the Swiss president -- Geneva is responsible for coordinating US-Iranian interests. These two moves, not Ahmadinejad's speech, are worth focusing on.. The United Arab Emirates' political daily Akhbar Al-Arab agreed with Ahmadinejad that Israel is a racist state to the marrow and that boycotting Durban II cannot clear Tel Aviv's name. A simple analysis of Israeli thoughts, actions and policies towards the Palestinian issue would clearly prove its racism. What would the world call the immigration of all world Jews to a land that is not theirs if not racism? So what is racism, the newspaper editorial questioned.. Nevertheless, Israel has managed to gain the sympathy and support of the US and Europe. The US and European decision to boycott the Geneva meeting is clear proof of their continuous moral and material support for Israel. The new US administration should have differentiated between sympathising with Israel for the sake of its interests in the region and the Israeli racist practices in order to espouse a more logical and objective stand from Tel Aviv. The Jordanian independent political daily Addustour wrote that whoever follows the UN conference would realise that racist practices are still present in various places in the world and that there are states like Israel that are clearly practising it. The Israeli policies in the occupied territories, according to the newspaper's editorial, showed Israel as a racist state that has been practising ethnic cleansing for the last four decades. It has declined from withdrawing from the territories it occupied in 1967, violated human rights through imposing a blockade against Gaza, banned the Palestinians from praying in Al-Aqsa Mosque, divided the West Bank into cantons like the apartheid era in South Africa and built the apartheid wall although the International Court of Justice denounced it. "The US-European boycott of the conference on the pretext that it attacks Israel is unjustified. It is a regression in the change that the US new president promised and proof that Washington is adamant about protecting Israel in spite of the world anger that is shown in the protests that denounce the Israeli occupation and Israeli's racist discrimination policies," the editorial read. The edit called on the US, European states and the international community to carry out the Geneva recommendations to wipe out the phenomenon of discrimination. In short, the edit added, Durban II denounced Israel and revealed its inhuman practices in the occupied territories and provided an incentive to the international community and Quartet to follow-up on the conference's recommendations in order to force Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories including East Jerusalem, the return of Palestinian refugees and putting an end to the Israeli policies of ethnic cleansing. The Syrian political daily Tishreen wrote that Durban II paid the price of Durban I which tried to reissue UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 passed in 1975. The resolution considered Zionism a form of racial discrimination. The resolution was annulled in 1991 by the UN under Western- US-Zionist pressure. In addition, the Western-Zionist enthusiasm to thwart the conference through boycotting it confirms without a shadow of a doubt that the occupation strategy towards the Middle East region has not changed. Those who boycotted the conference showed clearly that the West, which claims to respect justice and human rights, cannot denounce Israeli racist and occupation practices. "The US policy declared by Obama failed in its first test by boycotting Durban II, proving anew that it cannot be unbiased in any matter involving Israel," the edit read. Mohamed Kaoush wrote in the Jordanian political daily Al-Arab Al-Yom that two groups tried to escape from Geneva: the first group by boycotting it and the second by leaving from the hall when Ahmadinejad delivered his speech. The groups escaped because they knew that it was not possible to discuss combating discrimination without mentioning Zionism especially when Israel refuses to recognise the rights of the Palestinians. The US has also been practising racial discrimination against the Muslims and Arabs since 11 September 2001. US newspapers, especially The Washington Post, published reports on torture against Arabs and Muslims in US jails namely in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Such punishment which contradicts human and moral values as well as international laws and conventions, is a clear form of despotism and racism. Israeli practices in Palestinian lands and building the annexation wall are another form of racism. Thus, Kaoush called on Obama to raise the slogan of change and take tangible legal steps in the interest of the world. Mahmoud Al-Mubarak wrote that the eight years that passed since Durban 2001 witnessed clear forms of racism. The aftermath of 11 September made the world forget Durban's recommendations. As a result, US discriminatory policies have reached an unprecedented level. It issued statements against Islam, destroyed the infrastructure of Afghanistan and occupied Iraq causing the death and displacement of more than five million innocent civilians, mostly women and children. It addition, it opened jails in the US like Guantanamo and other secret jails in Europe. Israel also committed the most horrible racist crimes during the last eight years which included building the apartheid wall, continuous ethnic cleansing and its criminal aggression on Lebanon in 2006 and against Gaza towards the end of last year. However, Geneva did not show any interest in all these racist practices. In the preparatory meeting, member states agreed to annul any term that accuses Israel of racism and added a phrase to remind the world of the Israeli holocaust. "Genuine Western racism against the Arab world is crystal clear in Durban II in which Western states refused to denounce their racism and believed it enough to apply international and human rights laws on the other," Kaoush concluded in the London-based independent political daily Al-Hayat.
