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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Cause and effect
*
It is not sufficient to merely acknowledge the errors of the past. We must be committed to making every effort to prevent [racist] practices from happening again. The consequences of these and similar practices plague us to this very day and must be addressed. We must document and establish that these are crimes against humanity and that their perpetrators must receive the appropriate punishment. [...]
A firm stance against [racist] policies is essential, as is a conscious effort to keep a living record of today's tragedies in the world's collective memory -- just as the sad memories of the past are kept alive.
The world's conscience must remain one and undivided. It must not allow itself to discriminate between one atrocity and another based on the dictates of centres of power that shift from one era to the next. Racism is racism, whether it is practised against Jews, Arabs, Africans, or Asians. This also applies to practices aimed at exterminating the indigenous peoples of the American continent. Exercising selectivity in how we approach or deal with these issues is in itself an act of racism that should be averted and should be condemned by this conference.
[The world needs to address] issues of colonial settlement in Palestine and other Arab territories -- a policy that attempts to impose an alleged supremacy of one people over another -- and recognise that self-determination is a basic human right that is denied the Palestinian people. [The world cannot ignore] overtly racist and insulting remarks and pronouncements that reveal the hatred towards a particular people, to which fact we have the testimony of many Israeli leaders and religious figures. Such leaders have said that Arabs are "insects" and "snakes", that they multiply like ants that must be exterminated. This is racism that should never be accepted or condoned. Some religious figures that are part of the Israeli regime have also branded the entire Palestinian people as terrorists. Indeed, the current Israeli minister of transport has openly called for the genocide of the Palestinian people, proclaiming: "Let's burn them all!" [...]
Anti-racism demonstrators in Durban
African American singer Harry Belafonte listens to a Black British girl relating her racial experiences at school (photos:AP)
Last May when the preparatory meetings for this conference were entering their final stages, another Israeli official said, "There is a huge gap between us [Jews] and our enemies -- not just in ability, but in morality, culture, sanctity of life and conscience." [...]
[Arabs came to Durban] not to prevent others from voicing their grievances or preventing them from reminding us of the past so as to avert the reoccurrence of past atrocities, but, rather, to lend our support to all peoples who have experienced such horrors and to their claims for reparation. Some peoples have already been compensated for the sufferings they endured. Why should this be denied to others who have experienced tragedies no less horrific than the stories and practices that we have been told about for many years? [...]
Arabs condemn what happened to the Jewish people and we will stand by them in their determination that they should never be subjected to the racist experiences of the past again. However, can we then allow them to inflict similar suffering on others, as, indeed, is happening now at the hands of some [Israelis] against the Arabs, particularly the Palestinians? Israeli government-issued assassination orders, the seizure of Palestinian land and property, purely on the grounds that it belongs to Arabs, and the continuing policy of colonial settlement on Palestinian land are all racist policies and must be stopped. Israel's racist practices and statements must be stopped. The Durban conference has to be unequivocal and firm with regards to such serious practices and policies.
* Extracted from speech before the WCAR
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