In a letter to European Parliament President, Mr Hans-Gert Pöttering, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, expressed grave concern at an NGO conference to be hosted by the European Parliament in Brussels on 30 and 31 August, "misleadingly titled ‘International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace."

The letter pointed out that "this is to be held under the auspices of the International Coordinating Network for Palestine and the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which hardly indicates balance and impartiality," adding that "it was these very NGO’s which hijacked the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, as a vehicle for hate against the State of Israel and Jews worldwide." The Centre expressed no surprise that "the European Parliament gathering is to convene just as the first PrepCom for ‘Durban II’ (scheduled for 2009) will conclude in Geneva, where the very same hatemongers are planning a hatefest of even greater venom for the next round. They will be coming to Brussels to claim the endorsement of the European Parliament for their control of the new Durban PrepCom process."

 For NGO Monitor’s original report on the conference, click here.

  Additional Media Coverage of NGO Monitor’s reporting on conference: