SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — New Zealand has joined the growing list of countries that have refused to participate in United Nations’ anti-racism conference in New York this week.
Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully formally withdrew Sept. 16 from representing the South Pacific nation at the 10-year anniversary of the original World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, which degenerated into an anti-Israel fest.
"We remain concerned that the commemoration of the 2001 Durban Declaration could reopen the offensive and anti-Semitic debates which undermined the original world conference,” McCully said. “For these reasons, we have decided not to participate.”
New Zealand, which also withdrew from the Durban Review Conference in 2009, joins the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Israel and the United States in opting out of the event.
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