8 - 14 November 2001
Issue No.559
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 8 - 14 November 2001 Issue No.559 |
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The ripple effect
A recent meeting of Arab leaders took 11 September as a rallying call for two key Arab issues: anti-Arab sentiment and the violence in Palestine, reports Dina Ezzat
Arab officials meeting in the Syrian capital Damascus earlier this week sent a clear message to Washington and other key capitals that the Arab world is determined to have a say on the issues that top the international agenda following 11 September. The two-day meeting, which brought together foreign ministers from the 10 member states of the Arab Summit follow-up committee, opened Saturday.
Drawing on the provisions of the 1998 Arab Anti-Terrorism Agreement, delegates at the Damascus meeting reaffirmed their commitment to combating international terrorism, but stressed that other issues are equally worthy of attention. "The world seems to be concerned with the single issue of combating international terrorism," Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa said before Sunday's final meeting of the follow-up committee. "This makes all other issues, essential as they are, subjugated to a lesser degree of interest."
While acknowledging the importance of battling terrorism worldwide, Moussa insisted that it is just as necessary that international powers take a firm stance against Israel's heightened aggression in Palestinian territories. He also underscored the need for parallel efforts to thwart all attempts at defaming Arab culture and Islamic civilisation as a whole. "We believe that the international political priorities should be a three-item, not a single-item agenda," Moussa said.
The deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories consumed much of the discussions at this week's meeting. In a detailed and lengthy statement, Palestinian Foreign Minister Farouk Qaddoumi painted a harrowing picture of the "serious and alarming" consequences of Israel's policies of economic blockade, targeted assassinations and military reoccupation of land administered by the Palestinian Authority.
The committee reviewed progress on a study about bringing cases against Israeli war criminals at the International Court of Justice and discussed diplomatic efforts to hold a meeting of the high contracting parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which relates to the treatment of civilians under military occupation. Informed sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that delegates agreed to allocate $20,000 for legal expenses incurred in the quest to bring Israeli war criminals before the International Court of Justice. "The money, however, is not exactly forthcoming for this study," one Arab source said.
The committee also agreed that the Arab League, along with the governments of Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Syria, will intensify their contacts with the Swiss government -- the seat of the Fourth Geneva Convention -- to encourage a meeting of the high contracting parties. "So far the Arabs, Europeans and the Swiss have agreed tentatively on an early December target date for the convocation of this meeting," commented one insider. "But we will see how things go because a target date had been set for mid-October to mid-November, but it did not work."
Past target dates have come and gone largely due to pressure by the US and Israel to prevent the convocation of such a meeting. If held, participants would reassert the application of the Fourth Convention to all occupied Palestinian lands, including East Jerusalem. Ideally, a meeting would clearly demand that the rules of the convention be applied to Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
Currently there is an agreement among Arabs, Europeans, and the Swiss that the meeting would issue a declaration and not merely a statement. Disagreement still prevails, however, on the language of this declaration. Arabs insist on a clear reference to Israel in the final declaration. They also want to stipulate a follow-up mechanism for ensuring that Israel respects the convention. These are not requests that are getting much support from the Europeans, however. Meanwhile, the Swiss government has argued that an agreement has to be reached on the language of the final declaration before the meeting takes place.
"We will continue pursuing all efforts to provide protection for the Palestinians," commented the Arab League's Moussa in a joint press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdel-Ilah El-Khatib held after the Damascus meeting. El- Khatib and Moussa stressed the importance of international efforts to re-launch a peace process in the Middle East with the objective of ending the current "explosive" situation and establishing a viable Palestinian state. Jordan currently chairs the Arab summit.
"But it should be made very clear that Arabs are not going to be wasting 10 more years in a political process of negotiations just for the sake of negotiations. Arabs will be very careful not to be subjected to political cheating," Moussa said. He added that the "image is very bleak on the Palestinian front" and all international efforts should be marshalled towards ending aggression against the Palestinians.
Delegates at the Damascus meeting expressed hope that positive statements made by US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair would move beyond mere statement-making into a viable political process for a fair settlement in the Middle East. According to Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, Bush sent President Hosni Mubarak a written note toward the end of August offering US support for the establishment of a Palestinian state. "We welcome such statements; but statements are not sufficient in themselves -- they have to have feet to walk on," Moussa said.
Arab leaders insist that a clear line must be drawn between legitimate resistance to occupation and international terrorism. "Things should not be confused," said Moussa. He also warned against confusing suspects and targets in the current campaign against international terrorism. "Any attack or military action against any Arab country under the name of combating international terrorism will twist the whole situation to serve Israeli interests and will break the solid nature of the international consensus on the war against terrorism," Moussa said.
The committee also denounced all attempts by special interest groups trying to associate terrorism with Arabs and Muslims. "It is shocking that despite the fact that all the Arab countries condemned the attacks against the US and expressed sympathy with the American people, some [groups] are still trying to use the events of 11 September to smear all Arab states," Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Sharaa said.
A "dialogue of civilisations" was also endorsed by the delegates. Arab states are sending prominent ideologues and scholars representing the different Arab schools of thought to a two-day cultural event that will open at the Arab League on 26 November to work out a plan of action to combat the current campaign of Arab defamation. Moussa and Maher, along with several of the foreign ministers participating in the follow-up committee meeting, travelled from Damascus to Brussels to take part in the meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean Barcelona Partnership with their EU counterparts. The Brussels meeting, commented Moussa, will be a good opportunity for Arabs to stress to their European partners that the world agenda must expand its focus.
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