World Conference To Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination White House Statement.

This week representatives of many nations are meeting in Geneva in a World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination.

The Conference marks the midpoint of the U.N. Decade for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination, a Decade whose initiation the United States strongly supported. But the United States is unable to participate in this potentially important Conference, although we will monitor the proceedings, because the definition of "racism" has been perverted for political ends by including Zionism as one of its forms. The United States cannot associate itself with the Decade so long as it endorses the patently false definition of Zionism as a form of racism.

Instead we hope that this Conference will return to the original purpose of the Decade, so that we might rejoin this international effort to eliminate racism throughout the world. We will work towards this end because we know the challenge that racism poses, and for more than a century we have struggled to heal its scars. We know our goals have not been fully accomplished, yet we are encouraged and deeply committed to them. Domestically and internationally, we will continue to pursue this great common purpose in the context of other uncompromised efforts.

We call on all nations to respect the original objectives of the United Nations Decade Against Racism and to resist efforts that distort its purpose and erode its moral force.