NGOs capitalize on ideological and political antagonism within the UN to bring their anti-Israel campaigns to the international stage. The devastating impact of NGOs is compounded by the institutional bias of UN bodies, such as the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur on Palestinian issues, and biased “fact-finding” missions.
As predicted by NGO Monitor, the majority of NGO submissions to the UN's UPR of Israel ignore human rights issues facing Israelis and areas where Israel is a leader in this field, while grossly distorting the humanitarian, human rights and international legal dimensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Nord-Sud XXI, Ittijah, Badil, and PGAAWC exploit human rights terminology and employ inflammatory rhetoric against Israel. Adalah, Amnesty, and others attribute "racist" motives to Israeli policies, instead of acknowledging that these are legitimate responses to Palestinian violence against Israeli civilians.
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On November 19, 2008, Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, announced that Israel will not participate in the Durban Review Conference in Geneva in April 2009, joining Canada as the only governments to formally boycott the conference. She noted the Draft Outcome Document, which "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." The US, the UK, France, and Denmark have threatened to boycott the conference, as well.
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EAFORD uses its ECOSOC status to promote campaigns declaring that "Zionism equals racism" and demonization based on "apartheid." They have accused Israel of a "Holocaust" against the Palestinian people and characterized terrorism as "resistance." EAFORD was very active in the framework of the NGO Forum of the 2001 Durban Conference, claiming that Zionism is based on "purity of the race, and distinctiveness from other people" which "seems to bear close resemblance to ...Fascism and Nazism," and is seeking another UN-sponsored NGO Forum at the 2009 Durban Review Conference.
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