inputs: hypothesis: NGO forum charged Israel with war crimes against Palestinians. premise: Israel was stung by the 2001 Durban conference. Despite successful pressure to remove any reference to Israel from the official closing statement, the international NGO forum could not be so easily tamed. It issued a strongly worded declaration that equated Zionism with racism. It also described Israel's occupation of Palestinian land as "Israel's brand of Apartheid" and accused Israel of perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity. It was perhaps the loudest criticism so far by the international community of Israeli practices against the Palestinians. As such it was attacked by Western governments, and the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, as anti-Semitic.