Stemming disaster

The Arabs must do more than scream and shout, writes Ibrahim Nafie

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The foremost obstacle to the realisation of Palestinian rights is Washington's unmitigated pro-Israeli bias. This bias has reached unprecedented heights under President Bush, who has recently declared his backing for Sharon's unilateral disengagement scheme.

Bush's recent assurances to Sharon are an extension of the ongoing theft of Palestinian land that began with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. Like that declaration, these assurances represent a gift from a party without title to another not entitled to receive it. While the Balfour Declaration was issued at the peak of Western colonisation of the Arab world, Bush's assurances came long after international resolutions condemned and dismantled colonialist hegemonies.

Today, Palestine remains the sole exception to the worldwide recession of the colonialist tide. It remains so because of Washington's unstinting support for Israel's refusal to comply with the plethora of international resolutions calling for its withdrawal from the occupied territories, as well as its wholehearted indulgence of every Israeli attempt to wriggle out of its commitments since the beginning of the peace process.

In June 2002, Bush gave the Arab world a glimmer of hope with the declaration of his vision of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. His recent approval of Sharon's plan to annex a large chunk of Palestinian land and to retain settlements in the occupied territories pulled the carpet from under the Arabs, destroying the confidence they had placed in his statement.

Against this slap in the face to international legitimacy and the gross injustice it threatens to visit on the Palestinian people, the Arabs must do more than just scream and shout. They must transform their rejection of Bush's backtracking on Palestine into a concrete course of action. The urgency of this cannot be overstated in light of Washington's intention to table a resolution before the UN Security Council aimed at formalising Sharon's scheme and superseding all previous resolutions pertaining to the Palestinian track.

If the Arabs are to act effectively, the Palestinian Authority and all Palestinian factions must first come together and formulate a national programme that sets as its ultimate goal the liberation of territories occupied since 1967. Regardless of their original ideological platforms, all factions must commit themselves to this goal and no more. Any talk of reclaiming historic Palestine and eliminating the state of Israel is detrimental to the Palestinian cause.

Arab governments must then resolve to set a realistic agenda for the forthcoming Arab summit. At that summit Arab leaders will be called upon to adopt those resolutions that will furnish the optimum support for both the Palestinian and the Iraqi people. The greatest challenge, however, will be to translate their resolutions into a concrete agenda. Although the Arabs' record in collective action is dismal at best, perhaps they can draw inspiration from the October 1973 war, the last time they collaborated effectively towards the realisation of a common objective.

The global climate currently favours an Arab diplomatic drive that challenges the US- Israeli scheme to bury the Palestinian cause. In Europe, in particular, there is support for Arab positions. Not only are such powers as France and Germany opposed to US policy in the Middle East, but even in Britain, the US's staunchest European ally, opinion diverges from Washington on essential principles. This was epitomised in a letter signed by 52 former senior British diplomats urging Blair to cease his support for US policies that threaten security and stability in the Middle East. The diplomats charged that in seconding Bush's green light to Israel to hold on to selected settlements in the West Bank, Blair had betrayed the principles that guided four decades of international efforts to restore peace. How right they are, for to grant Israel the right to hold on to its settlements around Jerusalem is to kill the dream of East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent Palestinian state.

The threat looming over Palestine, compounded by the plight of the Iraqi people and the challenges of reform, compel the Arabs to take immediate, constructive action. The moment is ripe for them to coordinate with the many international powers and organisations that are keen to work for a just and lasting settlement to the Palestinian cause, a rapid solution to the Iraqi crisis and a modified approach to reform in the Arab world.

Constructive action means that the Arabs must cease their age-old habit of stopping at outcries and declarations of intent. It is time they matched deeds with words, and one starting point is to pursue Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa's call to bring the Palestinian plight before the Security Council.