On November 19, 2008, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni announced that Israel will not participate in the Durban Review Conference in Geneva in April 2008, joining Canada as the only governments to formally boycott the conference. She noted that the ´Draft Outcome Document´ “singl[es] out and delegitimiz[es] the State of Israel,” and “legitimiz[es] hatred and extremism and anti-Semitism under the banner of a fight against racism.” This decision was welcomed by NGO Monitor, but condemned by the Israeli-Arab NGO group Ittijah and others.

Meanwhile the outstanding issues of funding for the DRC and NGO participation are becoming clear. The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly approved (130 in favor, 11 against, 35 abstentions) a draft resolution in favor of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, allocating a large budget to the April event. And the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has offered travel support to NGO representatives to attend the April Review Conference.