U.S. boycott UN conference on racism, calling it anti-Semitic

Earlier in the Western press reported that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand received a letter from Assistant Secretary of State Joseph McManus, stating that the United States will not be at the World Conference against racism, since in its program "included the ugly manifestations of intolerance and anti-Semitism. " At such a conference to combat racism in 2009, the main event was a speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who read it with a sharp anti-Israeli rhetoric, after which representatives of 40 national delegations in protest left the courtroom.