 The Harper government reversed many of these positions, re-establishing traditional Canadian support for Israel as a beleaguered democracy.In United Nations votes related to Israel, the Palestinians, and related issues, which almost always went against Israel, reflecting the large bloc of votes from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Canada generally joined the US, Israel, Australia and a few other countries in principled opposition.PM Harper also announced that Canada would not participate in the Durban Review Conference, and that, in contrast to the antisemitic NGO Forum that took place in the initial conference in 2001, no Canadian taxpayer funds would be spent in support of this event, which was again expected to be exploited by radical groups for anti-Israel campaigning.