Weeks before the September 11, 2001 attacks, a United Nations conference intended to combat racism devolved into a forum dominated by anti-Israel rhetoric and antisemitism, according to contemporary accounts. The 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa, was ideologically commandeered by member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
According to the New York Post, Iran, hosting a pre-planning conference in Tehran in early 2001, barred Israeli officials and Jewish groups. Delegates from authoritarian states drafted a UN declaration that specifically named Israel as a violator of human rights, while omitting mention of other countries engaged in similar practices. The OIC proposed language describing Israel's actions as "genocide." This focus on Israel, critics argued, diverted attention from human rights abuses within the OIC member states themselves.
American delegate Tom Lantos, then a congressman and Holocaust survivor, observed that the OIC's objective was to reframe Israel as an apartheid state, thereby undermining the broader human rights agenda of the conference. He warned UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson that allowing terms like "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide" to be applied to Israel's conduct would debase their meaning.
The conference itself saw an estimated 20,000 protesters outside, chanting slogans such as "Free, free Palestine" and displaying banners that equated Hitler with Israel. Inside, antisemitic materials, including copies of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and cartoons depicting Jews negatively, were distributed. Jewish delegates reported facing obstruction and intimidation, with an emergency press conference being disrupted and security advising against travel to a local Jewish community center due to safety concerns.
When the NGO conference forum voted on its Declaration and Action Plan, attempts to include language addressing antisemitic violence were overwhelmingly rejected by approximately 3,600 NGOs. The final declaration named only Israel as a "racist nation," a "colonial apartheid state" guilty of "genocide." This outcome was seen as a victory for regimes with documented human rights violations, while leaving millions suffering under their rule unaddressed.
The United States delegation, led by Secretary of State Colin Powell, ultimately walked out of the conference. Powell stated that while the fight against racism was important, the conference had been undermined and would not be able to contribute effectively. The events of the Durban conference, which concluded just four days before 9/11, were seen by some as a precursor to the broader geopolitical realignments and the erosion of human rights terminology in international discourse.