November 20, 2008	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 21, 1429

JERUSALEM, Nov 19: Israel's foreign minister said on Wednesday that the government will boycott a United Nations conference on human rights next year.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the World Conference Against Racism is biased against Israel and is little more than a forum that aims to delegitimise the Jewish state. The gathering is scheduled to take place next April in Geneva.

She announced the planned boycott on Wednesday at a conference of North American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.

The UN conference is a follow up to a meeting held in 2001 in Durban, South Africa. At the time, Jewish participants said they were silenced and threatened by Arab activists.

The US and Israel walked out midway through the 2001 conference because of a draft resolution that singled out Israel for criticism and compared Zionism — the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state — to racism. The resolution was never adopted.—AP