In 2001, the UN’s World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, infamously turned into an unprecedented antisemitic hate fest.

The gathering -- at which the “Zionism is racism” lie was rehabilitated and crude anti-Jewish bigotry and Holocaust denial was displayed openly -- marked an unfortunate turning point in the mainstreaming of the delegitimization of Israel under the guise of human rights advocacy.

At Durban, Jewish representatives were excluded from decision-making, verbally harassed, and physically threatened. Participating NGOs handed out the notorious antisemitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and other materials claiming “Hitler was right.”

Next month, the UN will hold a meeting in New York celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Durban conference. Nearly a dozen countries -- the US, UK, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, and Israel -- have already announced they will not attend Durban IV due to the poisonous antisemitic legacy of the 2001 conference and follow-up events in 2009 -- where then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went on a Holocaust-denying diatribe -- and 2011.

"Canada is concerned that the Durban Process has and continues to be used to push for anti-Israel sentiment and as a forum for antisemitism,” a Canadian government statement explaining its decision said.

All enlightened nations should follow suit and withdraw from the upcoming UN festivities, but it is particularly incumbent on International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) member states to do so.

The Durban ideology -- which singles out Israel for demonization and denies the Jewish right of self-determination -- directly contravenes the principles behind the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, which has been adopted by 33 countries, as well as hundreds of governmental bodies, NGOS, educational institutions, cultural entities, and athletic clubs worldwide.

In the two decades since the first Durban conference, antisemitism has been perniciously laundered under universal social values, especially the anti-racism struggle, and the IHRA definition was created in part as tool to fight this perversion of justice and morality.

The presence of IHRA member states at the Durban anniversary celebration would only lend legitimacy to the proceedings, which will likely fuel already-surging Jew-hatred around the world by amplifying antisemitic incitement as all past Durban-related events have.

Therefore, we call on all IHRA member states to demonstrate their continued commitment to the global fight against antisemitism and solidarity with the Jewish people by withdrawing from the Durban IV conference.