6 - 12 September 2001
Issue No.550
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 6 - 12 September 2001 Issue No.550 |
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The majority's voice
Delegates from around the world criticised the US's decision to walk out of the UN World Conference Against Racism and to defy, alone, an international consensus that condemns Israel's racist occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The United States and Israel wanted to dictate the agenda to the delegates in Durban; specifically, they wanted to prevent discussion of the illegal foreign military occupation of the Palestinian nation. The US claimed any condemnation of Israel at an international forum would sabotage ongoing efforts to revive negotiations; but, leaving aside the fact that such "efforts," particularly on the US's part, are negligible, the delegates who went to Durban to discuss racism were not willing to ignore Israel's brutality. These practices did not start with the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada a year ago: they are a systematic daily routine, to which the Palestinians have been subjected since Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.
The US was not represented at UN anti-racism conferences in 1978 or 1983. This time, Washington sent a low-level team, not because of any newly discovered interest in the topics discussed at the meeting, but to silence the international community and prohibit explicit criticism of Israeli practices. Many analysts believe, however, that Washington focused on the text mentioning Israel's occupation of the Palestinians in a less than altruistic bid to deflect attention away from its own problems at home with African Americans lobbying for slavery reparations.
The US and Israel are trying to blame the Arabs for scuppering the Durban conference. But the official Arab delegations, and the very active Arab non-governmental organisations that attended, were only a minority of the 150-odd countries represented at the gathering. Without a strong case, condemnations of Israeli racism, and calls that it end the occupation, would not have obtained such overwhelming international support.
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