AUSTRALIA will not send representatives to an international conference that is expected to be a hotbed of anti-Israel sentiment.
The Gillard Government announced on Tuesday evening it would not be attending the High Level Meeting on the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action, better known as Durban III.
The announcement was welcomed by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition Julie Bishop, who had publicly called on the government to opt-out as soon as possible. “I was pleased that the Government has heeded my call to boycott Durban,” Bishop told The AJN. “Given the fact that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a keynote speaker
, people are entitled to have grave concerns.”
Bishop said she was also calling on the Government to oppose a vote for Palestinian statehood at the United Nations next month.
“There has been a longstanding bipartisan position on the two-state solution and this will undermine the peace process,” she said.
In announcing the Government’s decision, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Australia had been involved in consultations and planning for the United Nations Human Rights Council-led conference as a way of opposing extreme language finding its way into the text of the declaration.
http://www.jewishnews.net.au/gillard-government-says-no-to-durban-iii/22655
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