Israel was branded a racist apartheid state early today by thousands of non-governmental organisations meeting in South Africa.
The harsh anti-Israeli language in the NGO Forum's final declaration injected new Middle East tensions into the parallel UN World Conference Against Racism attended by 153 governments in the Indian Ocean port of Durban.
Worsening Israeli-Palestinian violence has cast a shadow over the racism meeting despite pleas by Nelson Mandela to seize the chance to end the contagion of racial discrimination.
The Forum accused the Jewish state of systematic perpetration of racist crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing .
It called Israel a racist apartheid state in which Israel's brand of apartheid as a crime against humanity has been characterised by separation and segregation...and inhumane acts.
The declaration, adopted by 3,000 NGOs in 44 regional and interest-based caucuses, shocked Jewish groups. Jewish delegates walked out.
But a lawyer with the Association of Palestine NGO, Mr Tawfiq Jabareen, said: "We want the governmental conference to adopt these documents. The Palestinian people have a right to self-determination."
The Israeli government delegation to the UN conference blasted the language as an incitement to hatred of Jews.
The decision of the conference of the NGOs adopted this morning is outright incitement, whose only purpose is to delegitimise the Jewish state and its people, delegation spokesman Mr Noam Katz told reporters.
(It) adds fuel to the attempts that are being made to demonise Israel, he added.
Meanwhile, Mary Robinson, the UN human rights chief hosting the World Conference Against Racism in South Africa, said she personally opposed the NGO Forum's declaration branding Israel as a racist and genocidal state.
The Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres voiced his government's anger saying it was an outburst of hate, of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.
Palestinian representatives said the text had highlighted civil society's disgust over Israeli attacks on civilians.
At least 548 Palestinians and 157 Israelis have been killed during the 11-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
The issue of reparations for four centuries of slavery, the most important subject for many participants, has struggled for media attention yet remains a stumbling block.
African and Caribbean states want a formal apology and some countries are pressing for reparations for the millions of Africans torn from their homelands during the 400 years in which the trade flourished.
While resolutions at NGO Forums have no binding authority, they increasingly influence the final declarations adopted at the UN governmental meetings they precede.
South Africa's deputy president, Jacob Zuma, denied that the Israel issue had hijacked the conference.
He said the conference was not hijacked and that it was clear the Israel issue was going to be one of the main issues.
The Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa sounded a softer note when he addressed the conference by saying Arabs would not stand in the way of condemning crimes committed against Jews in the past but at the same time, they would not accept silence on any racist practices Israel pursues today.
Western opposition to what they see as anti-Israeli bias was clear with the United States, Canada and Israel sending only junior level delegations to the conference.