The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, arrived in South Africa yesterday to lead a UN conference on racism as activists meeting on the sidelines continued acrimonious debate over Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
That situation, restitution for slavery and the plight of Asia's low-caste Dalits, once known as "untouchables", have emerged as the most contentious themes at a forum on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) meeting ahead of tomorrow's opening of the World Conference Against Racism.
The presence of the Palestinian Authority's Yasser Arafat at the conference - his attendance was confirmed yesterday by the South African government - is expected to inflame the debate on Israel.
As the NGOs met, a Palestinian wearing a black-and-white scarf and a South African Jew wearing a yarmulke and handing out white- and-yellow daisies debated the conflict. The discussion was heated, but civilised.
"As they ended the debate, Mr Imtiaz Jhetam said: "If someone tells you to take that off, come and tell me and I will scream at them."
He was referring to an incident earlier in the day, when Mr Widmond complained that a group of Palestinians had shouted abuse at him for wearing the headpiece.
"What is needed is a movement of NGOs, of the people, to boycott Israel in every way," said Ms Iris Bar, of Haifa, a Jewish member of the Palestinian NGO delegation.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, is boycotting the conference after objecting to what Washington calls "offensive" anti-Israeli language in a draft declaration, even though it was watered down after tough negotiations.
The NGOs have no such inhibitions: their draft declaration calls for the branding of Israel as "an apartheid, racist and fascist state" and the recognition that the Palestinian people have "the clear right under international law to resist occupation by any means".
In the Middle East, top-ranking Palestinian and Egyptian officials made it clear yesterday that they would take the fight to the UN conference, although Egypt said Arab states would stop short of equating Zionism with racism.
Mr Faruq Qaddumi, the Palestine Liberation Organisation's political chief, said the PLO delegation would demand a "firm condemnation of Israeli criminal attacks" during the 11-month-old Palestinian uprising.
"Israeli practices against the Palestinians have surpassed the Holocaust in horror," he said in Cairo on his way to Durban.
The 22 members of the Arab League meet tomorrow to co-ordinate their efforts against Israel.
NGOs from the US slammed Powell's boycott, declaring it disgraceful, reprehensible, morally indefensible and proof that racism continued at all levels in the US.
In Durban, the UN flag was raised at the International Conference Centre. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, planted a yellowwood tree to commemorate the victims of racism.