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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Cast out
Overwhelming support for the Palestinian cause among NGOs at Durban suggests that US and Israeli delegations at the WCAR didn't walk out -- they were drowned out
More than 3,000 NGOs adopted the NGO Forum declaration, in which Israel is castigated as a racist and colonial apartheid state. The declaration condemned Israel for racial discrimination and the inhumane treatment of Palestinians, denouncing the victimisation of women and children.
Anti-Zionist rabbi at WCAR (photo: AFP)
Groups among the (Zionist) Jewish Caucus -- headed by Shimon Samuels and representing eleven Zionist NGOs, such as the ADL, B'nai B'rith, Hadassah and the Wiesenthal Centre -- tried to add a paragraph (number 14) to the statement describing "charges of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and apartheid as a virulent contemporary form of anti- Semitism".
This paragraph, if adopted, would have meant that any human rights critique of Israel could be labelled anti- Semitism. All various caucuses, except the Jewish Caucus, voted to delete the paragraph, however. Realising that there was a general consensus on the part of the overwhelming majority of NGOs in opposing Israel's institutionalised system of racism, apartheid and colonialism, members of the Jewish Caucus walked out. Crowds in the main meeting hall sent them off to chants of "Free Palestine".
Later, the programme of action from the NGO Forum was adopted, which called for the enforcement of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which includes measures to be employed against apartheid, including a protection force in Palestine and the dismantling of Israeli colonies. The NGO programme adopted called for the right of return for all Palestinian refugees; the reinstitution of UN Resolution 339, which equates Zionism with racism; the repeal of Israel's Law of Return, which grants citizenship to all Jewish immigrants; and the establishment of a war crimes tribunal. The programme also urged the UN to prepare educational material for schools and universities on Israel's apartheid system; to establish a UN special committee on Israeli apartheid and set up UN programmes and institutions to combat racist media distortion, stereotyping, and propaganda demonising Palestinians as violent terrorists.
The forum called on the international community to impose a policy of complete isolation of Israel as an apartheid state, as was done in the case of South Africa, including sanctions, embargoes, and the full cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, and military) between all states and Israel.
On Friday, 31 August, South African President Thabo Mbeki and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan failed to arrive at the Speaker's Corner about 100 metres from the International Convention Centre to receive a "People's Manifesto" from a 60,000-strong march organised by the Durban Social Forum, including the South African Palestine Solidarity Committee and other organisations grouped around the South African National NGO Coalition. The march started at Natal Technikon and ended with a rally in Hoy Park, where South Africans called for an international movement against Israeli apartheid. Demonstrators carried signs reading "Amandla Intifada", "Sharon, War Criminal", and "Hector Peterson, Mohamed Al-Dora, Twin Victims of Apartheid". The crowd, mainly South Africans, chanted old South African anti-apartheid songs and chanted "Down with Israeli apartheid, Down!" and "Viva Palestine!"
On Monday, the low-level delegation sent by the US administration walked out of the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR). At an impromptu press conference at the ICC media centre, American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson denounced the US decision, adding that sending such a low-level delegation to the conference had been an insult to the South African government in the first place.
What is the significance of the American and Israeli boycott of the World Conference Against Racism? First, one must recognise that this is not the first time the United States has boycotted an anti-racism conference. The two previous conferences were boycotted by the United States and a number of EU States. The United States led a boycott of the 1978 World Conference Against Racism over a document referring to apartheid in South Africa that also included a condemnation of Israel's systematic violations of Palestinian rights. In 1983, the same states again voted against any measures being taken against South Africa. The position of the United States is clear: to date, within the United Nations Security Council, the US has used its veto 73 times, the vast majority of which were cast in support of Israel and apartheid in South Africa.
The US and Israel's allies are trying to prevent any criticism on Israel's human rights record. American and European Jewish organisations have been so pre- occupied with defending Israel's apartheid regime that Palestinian youth had to submit language on anti- Semitism at the Youth Summit, in which Israeli organisations walked out twice. The same happened at the NGO Forum. Instead of submitting language to combat anti-Semitism, organisations such as the Simon Wiesenthal Centre have been turned into state-sponsored Israeli lobby centres.
With this boycott of the first international conference in 10 years aimed at combating racism around the globe, the United States and Israel are sending the world a dangerous message: that their desire to silence criticism of Israel's appalling human rights record is considered a higher priority than international efforts to combat racism and protect universal human rights.
The majority of NGOs participating in the WCAR strongly believed that, as in the case of South African apartheid, the Israeli discriminatory regime must be confronted by the international community, both because of the implications of its actions for regional and world peace and because of the abhorrent nature of the racist system itself.
* Compiled from reports by the Arab Media Caucus attending the NGO forum of the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Other Forms of Intolerance
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