11 - 17 April 2002
Issue No.581
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 11 - 17 April 2002 Issue No.581 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Behind the scenes of slaughter
The blank cheque the US administration has extended to Israel is not new, nor is the protection America has offered, and which is allowing Israel to slaughter as many Palestinians as possible. What is new is that the administration is entrusting a war criminal with its international standing.
The Arab people's calls for Europe to impose economic sanctions on Israel are not new. What is new is that two Belgian provinces have broken off relations with Israel and that other EU officials say they are considering this option. Meanwhile, Arab oil continues to fuel Israeli tanks in the West Bank.
Expressions of global solidarity with the Palestinian people are not new. What is new is the scope of this solidarity. Foreign peace activists are putting their lives at risk to defend Arafat's. Yet three of them, foreign researchers working in Egypt, are implicitly accused of "spying" on the Arabs.
What is new is that Egypt's cultural and political elite is not the party casting aspersions on the activists' motives. Perhaps that elite is ashamed of itself.
What would be really new is if the slaughter pushed the elite to mend its ways and realise that the activists' integrity is linked with democracy, civil and political rights. What is new is that our weaknesses, which allowed this slaughter, have been thoroughly exposed.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.
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