...if 9/11 was a transformative event, the same description must apply to another event that ended on the eve of 9/11. I am referring to "The World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance" in Durban, South Africa, which was the "tipping point" for the emergence of a new wave of anti-Semitism masquerading as anti-racism. Unfortunately, the 5th anniversary of this event has gone largely unremarked.

As one of my colleagues put it at the time, if 9/11 was the Kristallnacht of terror, Durban was the Mein Kampf. Those of us who personally witnessed the Durban festival of hate -- with its hateful declarations, incantations, pamphlets and marches -- have forever been transformed. For us, Durban is part of our everyday lexicon as a byword for racism and anti-Semitism, just as 9/11 is a byword for terrorist mass murder...

...what happened at Durban was truly Orwellian: A conference purportedly organized to fight racism was turned into a festival of racism against Israel and the Jewish people. A conference intended to commemorate the dismantling of South Africa as an apartheid state resonated with spurious calls for the dismantling of Israel's alleged apartheid state. A conference dedicated to the promotion of human rights as the new secular religion of our time increasingly singled out Israel as a sort of modern-day geopolitical Anti-Christ.

How did this happen?

The World Conference Against Racism was organized around four regional conferences -- in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Each regional conference was to formulate a declaration against racism and a plan of action. Then the four regional declarations and plans of action were to be collated in Durban into a composite draft declaration against racism.

The problem originated with the Asian regional conference, held in Tehran in February, 2001. Although Israel belonged to the Asian group, the conference organizers excluded Israel and Jewish non-governmental organizations from participation: Contrary to the United Nations' own principles with respect to universality and equality, a member state was made a pariah. The Tehran conference also supported a country-specific indictment of Israel, yet another breach of international human-rights principles and the UN's own procedures in this regard.

The six-point indictment emanating from the Tehran regional conference, which became a dominant blueprint for Durban, has emerged as one of the more scurrilous documents relating to Israel and the Jewish people to appear since the Second World War...