The United States and Israel pulled out of a global conference designed to address prejudice, racism and resentment saying the event has only exacerbated the very things it was meant to eradicate.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell issued a statement calling American diplomats home four days before the conference was scheduled to end, saying that “you do not combat racism by conferences that produce declarations containing hateful language.”

The U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa has been battling heated arguments over Israel and tensions in the Middle East as well as reparations for the ills and legacy of slavery.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres also announced that his country’s diplomats would pull out of the conference today, saying that Israel had been unfairly labeled as a colonialist nation by the members of the conference.

“I have taken this decision with regret, because of the importance of the fight against racism and the contribution that the conference could have made to it,” Powell’s statement said. “But, following discussions by our team in Durban and others who are working for a successful conference, I am convinced that will not be possible.”

I thought this was a recent article (Sept. 3), but for some reason, the year the article was written is not listed. It does indicate that Colin Powell was the Secretary of State at the time this event occurred, which means it happened between 2001 and 2005. Either way, it is clear that they should have attended the racism conference since racism has only worsened in America since President Barack Obama was elected into office. The United Nations (or somebody) needs to intervene.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=80564.