US, Australia, Netherlands boycott Durban II, UK and Switzerland will attend
The US, Australia, and Holland have all announced that they will not attend the Durban Review conference out of fear of anti-semitism, attacks on the West, and the singling out of Israel. The UK and Switzerland however, have said they do intend to participate.
The US announced that it could not participate because “the text still contains language that reaffirms in toto the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) from 2001, which the United States has long said it is unable to support” because it “singles out one particular conflict and prejudges key issues that can only be resolved in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.”
Australia followed the US boycott saying they “cannot support a document which reaffirms the 2001 Durban Declaration and Program of Action in its entirety - as is currently the case.” The statement also said, “…we cannot be confident that the Review Conference will not again be used as a platform to air offensive views, including anti-Semitic views.”
The Dutch Foreign Minister claimed that the Netherlands would not attend because “some nations were using it as a platform to attack the West.”
The UK and Switzerland however have announced that they do intend to participate although the UK claimed that its delegation would not include a high level official and that if Ahmadinejad repeated his “attacks on Israel” that they would walk out.
