National Post
· collected 2026-08-31 · by Special to National Post
analysis
Attempts to paint antisemitism as a form of political expression rather than racism is far from a recent phenomenon.
asserted
Attempts → paint → phenomenon
The clearest example of where this idea fermented on the world stage was the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa, which was held 25 years ago.
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which → ferment → Durban
WCAR was billed as a global gathering to combat racism, xenophobia and intolerance.
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WCAR → bill → racism
Governments, international organizations and civil society representatives assembled with the stated purpose of building a shared framework against racism in all its forms.
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Governments → assemble → forms
There was a sense that history would be made.
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history → be → ?
I was there to witness it unfold first-hand.
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it → witness → ?
I had not travelled to Durban as an advocate or as someone looking to advance Jewish community concerns.
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I → travel → concerns
In preparation for the conference, I had been commissioned to produce a report for the Government of Canada’s anti-racism secretariat that examined previous reports and recommendations on racism, racial discrimination and related intolerance.
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that → commission → racism
In effect, I arrived in Durban expecting conversations about combating racism in all its forms.
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I → arrive → forms
Instead, what I encountered there was almost the opposite.
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encountered → encounter → what
And therein lies one of the bitter irony of the experience.
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one → lie → experience
At the parallel NGO Forum, where civil society leaders from around the world were meant to give expression to the victims of racism and discrimination, the proceedings were transformed — or more accurately hijacked — into something much uglier.
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proceedings → mean → something
What should have been a universal anti-racism gathering became, in too many instances, an effort to remove Jew-hatred from the world’s anti-racism agenda.
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been → become → agenda
The spectacle was marked by manipulation, propaganda and a stunning willingness to excuse hostility toward Jews and dress it up as anti-Zionism or anti-Israel politics.
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spectacle → mark → politics
Jewish participants from across the political spectrum arrived expecting solidarity.
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participants → arrive → solidarity
Instead, many of us found ourselves asking whether antisemitism still counted as racism.
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antisemitism → find → racism
Some participants described being harassed because they were visibly Jewish.
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they → describe → ?
Copies of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the notorious antisemitic forgery, were circulated.
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Copies → circulate → Zion
Posters equated Israel with Nazi Germany.
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Posters → equate → Germany
Leaflets and slogans blurred, sometimes deliberately, any distinction between criticism of Israeli government policy and hostility toward Jews as a people.
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Leaflets → blur → people
Conduct that would have been immediately condemned had it targeted virtually any other minority was tolerated, rationalized or ignored when directed at Jews.
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it → condemn → Jews
It helped globalize the effort to recast the hatred of Jews as political opinion.
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It → help → opinion
The very language of anti-racism was used to launder antisemitic expression.
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language → use → expression
Jews were not denied the right to be protected in theory; rather, they were told that the hostility directed at them was not really hatred at all, but solidarity with the oppressed, anti-colonial activism or resistance to imperialism.
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hostility → deny → imperialism
Rest assured that what happened at Durban wasn’t about Israeli government policy.
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happened → rest → policy
It placed Israel, alone among the nations of the world, at the centre of the racism agenda.
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It → place → agenda
It treated Jewish self-determination as singularly suspect.
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It → treat → determination
It transformed Jews from a historically persecuted minority into the symbolic embodiment of oppression.
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It → transform → oppression
Once that shift occurred, antisemitism could be dismissed as merely a political complaint.
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antisemitism → occur → complaint
At a spontaneous gathering of Jewish conference delegates, Irwin Cotler, who would go on to become Canada’s justice minister, warned against what he called the “partitioning of prejudice.”
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he → go → prejudice
The phrase has stayed with me since.
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phrase → stay → me
Racism cannot be opposed selectively.
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Racism → oppose → ?
Human rights lose their moral authority when they are applied conditionally.
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they → lose → authority
The moment hatred against a particular people is deemed understandable, fashionable or politically useful, the universalism on which anti-racism depends starts to collapse.
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racism → deem → which
Durban revealed that collapse in real time.
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Durban → reveal → time
The final United Nations declaration did not adopt the most extreme language advanced by activists, and thankfully it did acknowledge that antisemitism is a form of intolerance.
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antisemitism → adopt → intolerance
But history remembers Durban at least as much for what unfolded in the civil society forum as for what appeared in the official diplomatic text.
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what → remember → text
The NGO Forum exposed a fault line that has widened over the past quarter century: antisemitism is increasingly treated as debatable, contextual or somehow less apparent when conveniently associated with criticism of Israel.
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antisemitism → expose → Israel
Jews are often required to prove that what they experience as antisemitism is indeed antisemitism.
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experience → require → antisemitism
Expressions that would be condemned instantly if directed at other minorities are parsed endlessly when Jews are the target.
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Jews → condemn → minorities
…and 15 more, not listed.
