30 August - 5 September 2001
Issue No.549
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 30 August - 5 September 2001 Issue No.549 |
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Enough is enough
As Al-Ahram Weekly went to print, it was not clear whether the US will participate in an official capacity at the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), which opens in Durban, South Africa tomorrow. What has, however, been made absolutely clear is that Washington does not approve of the "harsh criticism" directed at Israel in the preparatory meetings even though Arab and Muslim countries have abandoned attempts to include in the Durban Declaration wording which equates Zionism with racism.
The Durban Declaration and its Programme of Action, nonetheless, are expected to offer some form of recognition to the racist practices to which Palestinians are subject under Israeli occupation, even if the name of Israel is excluded to please Washington.
While the decision by US Secretary of State Colin Powell to stay away from Durban was widely anticipated it reflects badly on the ability of the US to act as an honest broker in the all but stalled Middle East peace process. What Powell's regrettable decision so flagrantly establishes is that Washington is not only partisan, but is unabashedly candid about its double standards.
The move comes as a slap in the face of all those who are working hard at reaching a compromise solution to the Middle East conflict. It comes at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Aril Sharon is intensifying the onslaught on hapless Palestinians and systematically liquidating the Palestinian leadership. The re-occupation of Beit Jala on Tuesday highlights the latest tragic turn of events in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The assassination on Monday of Abu Ali Mustafa, the general secretary of the PLO's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in El-Bireh, has increased the level of tension to boiling point. Against such a backdrop the US position towards WCAR begins to resemble that of Nero, content to fiddle while Rome burns.
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