Hudson Institute: Ahmadinejad's "Poisonous Cloud" Rhetoric Prepares to Descend on UN Next Month, Underscoring Mission of Durban III

NEW YORK, Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is an opinion/statement attributed to Hudson Institute:

"The true and poisonous nature of the upcoming Durban III conference in New York is crystal clear with the revelation that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will address the UN General Assembly as it unfolds," said Anne Bayefsky, a Senior Fellow of the Hudson Institute and Director of the Touro College Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust.  Bayefsky called for states to follow the example of the United States, Canada, Israel, the Czech Republic, Italy and the Netherlands and pull out of the conference scheduled for New York within days of the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

"Durban III" is intended to observe the 10th anniversary of the UN-sponsored anti-Semitic hatefest that took place in Durban, South Africa in 2001. The final product of that infamous conference – the Durban Declaration – charged Israel with racism, the only one of the UN's 192 state members so accused.

"Ahmadinejad's presence forces the world to look at the true mission of these Durban conferences. Delegates seek to legitimize the worst forms of intolerance, isolate Israel and allow it to be targeted by rogue states such as Iran and terrorist organizations that sit on its borders," stated Ms. Bayefsky. "The arrival of Ahmadinejad at Durban III prevents even the most indifferent observer from denying its agenda; a calculated effort to demonize the State of Israel."

To counter the dangerous demagoguery of Durban III, the Hudson Institute and the Touro College Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust will be holding a conference across the street from the United Nations on September 22nd.

Bayefsky reminds that "The Durban conference legitimized hate speech on a global scale and Ahmadinejad is its champion. His arrival is designed to incite, to inflame and to instill his corrosive brand of anti-Semitism."   Ahmadinejad was the only world leader to attend the Durban Review Conference, or Durban II, held in Geneva in 2009.   Every other head of state and government boycotted the event.

"Given the events that Durban III is intended to 'commemorate' – in the words of the General Assembly – our conference will be a call to action," said Bayefsky, "It will be a call to deny legitimacy to prejudice and its Durban Declaration, and to object when the United Nations has forsaken its founding principles."

Speakers include Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, former US UN Ambassador John Bolton, former Governor Mike Huckabee, world-renowned scholar Bernard Lewis, Academy-award winning actor Jon Voight, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and Harvard Professor and best-selling author Alan Dershowitz.

ABOUT THE HUDSON INSTITUTE AND THE TOURO INSTITUTE:

Hudson Institute is a nonpartisan policy research organization dedicated to innovative research and analysis. Founded in 1961, Hudson is celebrating a half century of forging ideas that promote security, prosperity, and freedom. http://www.hudson.org

The Touro College Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust aims to understand, explore and evaluate contemporary mechanisms for protecting human rights and the rule of law in view of the lessons of the Holocaust and its aftermath. http://www.touro.edu/ihrh  

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SOURCE Hudson Institute