DURBAN — Gerald Steinberg, founder and president of NGO Monitor, stated in a 2026 interview that the 2001 Durban NGO Forum launched the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. He also stated that the forum established the International Criminal Court as the venue to accuse Israel of war crimes.

Steinberg described the event as a coordinated effort to isolate Israel through international legal and political mechanisms. "Durban was the restarting of the Zionism is Racism campaign. It was the blueprint for accusing Israel of genocide and starvation and war crimes," he said.

The UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance was held in South Africa from August 31 to September 8, 2001. Over 12,000 representatives attended the conference in Durban. The NGO Forum preceding the main conference had over 7,000 participants.

Steinberg characterized the proceedings at the NGO Forum as predetermined rather than deliberative. "At the Durban NGO forum there was no debate – they adopted a plan of action naming Israel specifically and repeatedly as a genocidal state, committing war crimes, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and then they established mechanisms for the complete isolation of Israel. Nothing there was incidental or accidental," Steinberg said.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned UN officials that the US would not participate in the Durban conference if the agenda was used to restart the Zionism is racism campaign. UN High Commissioner Mary Robinson promised US officials that the Durban conference would not be used to restart the Zionism is racism campaign. The US and Israel walked out of the Durban conference.

, the 2001 Durban NGO Forum produced a declaration that branded Israel as a 'racist apartheid state' and called for the establishment of a U.N. committee to prosecute Israeli war crimes. The outcome was that the declaration was not incorporated into the main conference's final statement and was criticized by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson. , the main conference's final Declaration and Programme of Action did not contain the text that the U.S. and Israel had objected to, as it was voted out by the conference delegates.

NGOs sold copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion at the Durban NGO Forum. Pamphlets distributed at the Durban NGO Forum showed Hitler’s photograph with text reading: “What if I had won?”

Steinberg linked the rhetoric from Durban to subsequent media narratives. In April 2002, international media outlets and NGOs spread unverified claims that the Israeli military deliberately killed hundreds of civilians during the Battle of Jenin. Subsequent investigations by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International found no evidence of a massacre in Jenin.

"It was obviously a lie, but it got a lot of traction. Journalists picked it up. NGOs spoke of Israeli war crimes, and they repeated that all the way through the last 25 years," Steinberg said.

Gerald Steinberg launched NGO Monitor in response to the political role of NGOs and the manipulation of human rights language. He explained his motivation for creating the organization in the context of the Durban events. "Having watched this process take place and expressing my concerns and seeing the amount of power and influence of NGOs, and how the UN went along with it, I thought I could do a project and document the political role of NGOs, and particularly the manipulation of the language of human rights and the mechanisms of human rights," he said.

Timeline

The 1975 Zionism is Racism campaign was run by the Soviet Union and the Arab League on November 10, 1975. UN Resolution 3379 equated Zionism with racism in 1975 on November 10, 1975. Gerald Steinberg launched NGO Monitor in response to the political role of NGOs and the manipulation of human rights language on January 1, 2001.

A preparatory conference for the Durban conference took place in Tehran six months before the main event on February 1, 2001. Iran refused to grant permission to Israeli and Jewish organizations to attend the Tehran preparatory conference on February 1, 2001. Delegates at the Tehran preparatory conference drafted a document accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing, implementing a new kind of apartheid, and committing a crime against humanity on February 1, 2001.

The document drafted at the Tehran preparatory conference stated that Zionism was based on race superiority on February 1, 2001. US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned UN officials that the US would not participate in the Durban conference if the agenda was used to restart the Zionism is racism campaign on August 1, 2001.

What's New

Additional documentation shows the NGO Forum's declaration described Israel as a 'racist, apartheid state' that was guilty of 'racist crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing.' Further records indicate the main conference's final Declaration and Programme of Action did not contain the text that the U.S. and Israel had objected to, as it was voted out by the conference delegates.

Why It Matters

The 2001 Durban conference and its associated NGO Forum established a framework for accusing Israel of severe violations of international law, including genocide and apartheid. Gerald Steinberg identified this event as the origin of the BDS movement and the strategic use of the International Criminal Court to label Israel as the world’s biggest violator of international law. The declarations produced at the forum called for the restoration of UN Resolution 3379 and the application of anti-apartheid measures against Israel.

The divergence between the NGO Forum's declarations and the official UN conference outcomes shows the tension between civil society actors and state delegates. While the US and Israel walked out of the conference, and their objections were voted out of the final Declaration and Programme of Action, the NGO declarations influenced subsequent narratives. He argued that these mechanisms facilitated the repetition of unverified claims, such as those regarding the Battle of Jenin, for decades. The launch of NGO Monitor reflected an effort to document the political role of NGOs and the manipulation of human rights language in this context.