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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 May 2000 Issue No. 480 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 May 2000 Issue No. 480
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Normalisation quarrel at Amman IPU
By Lola KeilaniLobbying by Arab parliamentarians at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference, which opened in Amman on Sunday, succeeded in putting forward a proposal calling for the support for the rights of Palestinian refugees and persons displaced by war and occupation. The aim of the proposal, which was presented by Algeria on behalf of delegates from Arab and predominantly Muslim countries, is to come up with recommendations to facilitate the return of 3.5 million Palestinian refugees scattered throughout the world.
"The convening of this conference in Jordan led to an Arab victory by putting the refugees' problem on the IPU's agenda. This is a victory which greatly outweighs the mere presence of an Israeli delegation here," Jordanian Parliament Speaker Abdel-Salam Majali told protesters who staged a sit-in objecting to the participation of the Israeli Knesset delegation in the meeting and demanded lifting the UN sanctions against Iraq. This group was made up of representatives from Jordan's Anti-Normalisation Committee and the Jordanian National Mobilisation Committee for the Defence of Iraq, as well as lawyers from Iraq and Iran.
According to the IPU's regulations, participants in the conference are entitled to propose additional items to be added to the agenda for discussion. However, only one of the proposed subjects will be chosen and must be supported by at least two-thirds of the general assembly. Initially, 13 proposals were presented to the IPU Council, but these were then reduced to four.
During their last meeting in Algiers, members of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union agreed to put forward a single proposal, which was to support the rights of refugees and persons displaced by war and occupation. Their agenda item, which won with 1,338 votes out of a possible 1400, was pitted against proposals by Israel, Azerbaijan, and Japan.
When Raanan Cohen, head of the Israeli delegation, took the podium to explain her country's proposal, which deals with high-tech industrial zones and fostering the use of high technology in developing nations, a number of Jordanian, Iranian and Iraqi lawmakers left the hall to protest Israel's presence at the event.
Egypt's Parliament Speaker, Fathi Sorour, spoke out against the Israeli item on the grounds that "it does not pertain to issues of international concern, and is not in the organisation's field."
Moreover, Sorour turned down an invitation to meet with Israeli members of the Knesset, who asked intermediaries to convey their wish to meet with the Egyptian delegation.
Even Iraqi and Kuwaiti lawmakers found themselves sharing common ground in their refusal to meet members of the Israeli Knesset. However, they clashed earlier at a meeting for Arab delegates, exchanging insults when the Iraqi delegation submitted a proposal to invite Arab and international parliamentarians to visit Baghdad in a bid to increase pressure to lift the 10-year-old UN sanctions. These were imposed after Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Kuwaiti delegates made it clear they were not going to shake hands with their foes. "I will never shake hands with the Iraqis. Nor will I shake hands with the Israeli representatives who have killed and tortured Arabs throughout the years," said the head of the Kuwaiti parliament, Jassem Khorafi.
Even after King Abdullah opened the conference on Sunday, at least 20 Jordanian persisted in maintaining their efforts to bar Israeli lawmakers from entering the Jordanian parliament building. The legislators, who signed a petition in this regard, said that the Jordanian parliament "should be protected from desecration" by banning Knesset members from entering it.
"The Jordanian parliament enjoys a degree of political pluralism, and every deputy has the right to express his opinion," Majali said.
Although Majali did not say whether Knesset members are expected to visit the building of Jordan's parliament, he stressed that none of the conference's functions will be held there.
The conference, organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, is focussing on two issues: "Achieving peace, stability and comprehensive development in the world through forging closer political, economic and cultural ties among peoples," and "the dialogue among civilisations and cultures."
The president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Najma Heptullah, underlined the significance of discussing these two issues in Jordan. "The entire region has seen the evolution of different civilisations and religions, and it also witnessed conflicts of civilisations," said Heptullah, who is also the deputy chairwoman of the Rajya Sabha [Upper House] of India.
The IPU conference is held twice annually with the participation of both Arabs and Israelis. With an attendance of 1,400 legislators from 135 countries, this year's IPU conference is the largest in the organisation's history.
The last IPU conference was held in Berlin in October 1999 and the next one will take place in Jakarta, Indonesia, in October, 2000.
