"As was obvious to most participants worldwide, however, there was an additional layer to the cynical exploitation of the Palestinian tragedy going on at this conference, for the “Palestinian hijack” accusation provided the United States with an excuse to opt out of the conference, thus avoiding any discussion of reparations for slavery. As international human rights activist Ibrahim Ramey put it, “Most of the NGOs in Durban suspected that the real reason for the [U.S.] withdrawal was the reluctance of the government to confront the issue of systemic racism within the U.S. itself, and the African-American case for reparations.” Thus, the United States avoided any discussions of the issues mentioned (racism in the death penalty, world responsibility for the AIDS epidemic and so on), as well as reparations for the descendants for enslaved Africans, by claiming Palestinian “hijacking” of the conference. This move could have hindered coalition building among international projustice activists, were it not for the already tarnished image of the U.S. government in the world, by the Bush administration’s warmongering and unconditional support for Israel, as the latter engaged in ever more serious violations of international law."
— Nada Elia on the US’ withdrawal from the Durban racism conference in 2001 on the grounds that Israeli racism was unfairly targeted when it was mentioned at all out of hundreds of other issues discussed at the conference, a move that Obama repeated at Durban II. From “The Burden of Representation: When Palestinians Speak Out” in Arab and Arab American Feminisms.
