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LONELY: Only Israel and US oppose UN budget due to ‘funding anti-Semitism’

Israel and U.S. vote against budget, citing funding of programs that are anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Israel and the United States were the only two countries that voted Thursday against the United Nations 2021 budget, with the U.S. calling it “outrageous” that the world body was funding “anti-Semitism, anti-Israel bias, and hostility toward freedom of expression.”

Both nations objected to items in the $3.2 billion budget that set aside funds to mark the 20th anniversary of what Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan called “the disgraceful and anti-Semitic Durban Conference.”

“Far too often UN member states abandon principle for expediency and integrity for consensus,” tweeted U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft. “The budget adopted today reflects that trend by including funding to celebrate the Durban Declaration, extending a shameful legacy of hate, anti-Semitism & anti-Israel bias.”

“Twenty years on, there remains nothing about the Durban Declaration to celebrate or to endorse. It is poisoned,” Craft said.

Held in 2001 in the South African city of Durban, the UN World Conference Against Racism was described afterwards by international human rights lawyer Irwin Cotler as “a conference of racism against Israel and the Jewish people.” Led by an anti-Israel voting block, the conference passed resolutions that singled out Israel “as being a meta-violator of human rights and as the new anti-Christ of our time,” Cotler said.

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Both Israel and the U.S. have repeatedly called for reforms in the UN to bring to an end the anti-Israel bias marked by repeatedly singling out Israel for condemnation.

“Over the last 20 years, the United States has consistently opposed the corrosive Durban process. We call on all UN member states to seek new means to address constructively and inclusively the challenge of racism and racial discrimination,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement. “In particular, it is outrageous that the UN will fund in 2021 an event to promote the objectives of the Durban Declaration – a document saturated with anti-Semitism, anti-Israel bias, and hostility toward freedom of expression.”

“The United Nations should never serve as a platform for those determined to divide and diminish, but sadly that is all too often the case. For our part, we will continue to hold the United Nations to a higher standard,” the State Department said.