Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

September 4, 2026

The Ugly Legacy of the World Conference against Racism

A quarter-century of anti-Semitism started in Durban.

Twenty-five years ago, from August 31 until September 8, a World Conference against Racism, organized by the UN, took place in Durban, South Africa. High on the agenda was an effort, coordinated by the Arab League, to declare Zionism a form of racism, as well as for African countries to demand reparations from Western ones for racism and colonialism. David Harris observes that the conference was a “watershed moment” in the history of global anti-Semitism, presenting the cocktail of progressivism, Third Worldism, and Islamic chauvinism so familiar today:

SaveGift