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My Brothers' Keeper
Hirsh Goodman

When we decided to go to Durban for our summer holiday, we thought it was the ideal choice to escape the Middle East for a while.

Wrong. Thankfully, we were not there for the U.N. racism conference itself, having left a few days before the official opening. But we were in South Africa and in touch with the Jewish community during the onslaught. It was brutal.

In the weeks before the conference, Israeli anti-Zionist leftist Dr. Uri Davis, probably one of the most despicable people I have ever had the misfortune of appearing with on a radio show, as I did before the conference, was in Durban pumping his book: "Israel, the Apartheid State." Need I say more? There was not a major, and not-so-major, radio and television station on which he did not appear. And he starred in every newspaper. For the Muslims of South Africa, whose Pagad group planted a bomb three years ago in the synagogue of Weinberg, a Cape Town suburb, Davis was manna from heaven. A few choice Davis quotes: "Israel the rogue state"; "Israel's policy of ethnic cleansing"; "The Zionist atrocity"; "The Jews are trying to gain control of Haram al-Sharif."

In dozens of appearances, virtually all of them unchallenged, Davis systematically wiped away any distinction between Israelis and Jews. Within days, black union workers nationwide and Cape Town Muslims were parading with banners that equated the Star of David and the swastika, and chanting "One Bullet, One Jew."

And then the Palestinians descended. The day after some 250 representatives of the international press arrived in Durban prior to the formal opening, bored and waiting for something to happen, they were given their story. As if by magic, Durban was awash with slogans proclaiming "Zionism Is Racism" and "Israel the Apartheid State." Thousands of little black kids, only too happy for the gift, were proudly wearing T-shirts with the slogans on them, handed out on the beaches, at bus-stops, street corners and the railway station. Suddenly anti-Zionism became the clear theme of the conference. Not slavery in Sudan, India's caste system or ethnic cleansing in Burundi. Not even the controversial language of the draft resolutions. The issue became exclusively Zionism is racism, and blaming the Jews for being the world's new apartheid regime.

At the eye of the storm was South Africa's 80,000-strong Jewish community. While Israel was the target, the community was on the firing line. The Muslim march in Cape Town was the largest demonstration ever recorded in the city. The usually moderate Muslim Judicial Council, which had always maintained cordial relations with the Cape Town Jewish community, chartered a train to send over 500 organized protesters, some of them reportedly heavily armed, to Durban. The South African media, to a voice, turned uniformly anti-Israel and the South African government � as the product of a liberation struggle, with Muslim ministers in key positions, naturally aligned with the Palestinian cause � remained silent as anti-Semitism grew.

Though relatively small, the South African community is strong and well organized. It has a security organization and relatively efficient national organizations. In all, it managed the situation well, though its response was slow in coming. The attacks were not pleasant and some people expressed fear of potential anti-Semitism, but almost as wrenching for the community was its abandonment by the world Jewish community.

Israel made a correct decision by keeping a low profile. With top officials from America, Britain, France and others boycotting the conference because of its anti-Israel language, how could the Jewish state send more than low-level observers?

But the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, charged with combating international anti-Semitism? The World Jewish Congress, supposedly dedicated to the well-being of international Jewry? Where were they, among others? The ADL has made Jews proud for decades, but it seems it has lost touch with its mandate: to protect Jews from anti-Semitism internationally. What clearer clarion than "One Bullet, One Jew" did it need to act?

Ten days or so before the conference, Dr. Avi Beker, the World Jewish Congress's Jerusalem-based executive director of international affairs, appeared before a capacity audience at the 41st annual conference of South Africa's Jewish Board of Deputies to articulately outline the challenges facing world Jewry, including those evolving around the Durban meeting. But when the chips were down and the attack against Israel and the Jews moved from theory to reality, the WJC was nowhere to be found. In a one-page letter to the South African Board of Deputies, Beker explained the reasons behind the decision to stay away: In essence, the WJC did not want to give the conference de facto sanction by attending. Neither did the ADL.

But no one was asking them to attend because of the conference's formal content. They should have been on hand in Durban to help in the fight, put their well-trained and highly paid professionals behind the mikes, explain Israel's case, destroy the calumny that Zionism is racism and make a mockery of Uri Davis. But they stayed at home, sending low-level observers, and leaving Durban's 1,500 Jews, the majority of them well into their 60s, plus 26-year-old Yehuda Kaye, the head of the national Board of Deputies, a few students and a handful of others to stem the tide.

In truth, in the end it was the Palestinians who, as usual, ended up shooting themselves in the foot. After a few days the demonstrations petered out, and critics came before cameras complaining that the Palestinians had hijacked the talks. Other, critically important issues, had been swept aside. Increasingly, resentment grew that the Palestinians and the Arab League's insistence on ridiculous language in the draft resolutions had kept the heavy-hitters from the U.S. and even France away. And, at the same time, those few underpaid, under-recognized and under-appreciated people who had the gumption to face the onslaught began to make a difference with an effective counter-campaign focused on peace and flowers.

It is difficult to know whether, for South Africa's Jews and the world Jewish community, Durban was a flash in the pan or the spark of a renewed wave of worldwide anti-Semitism. Whatever it was, the ADL, WJC and others should get rid of the bureaucrats and bring in the fighters.