The silencer backfires

US withdrawal from the WCAR revealed the weakness of Washington's position in the face of a galvanised Palestinian/Arab front, write Hani Shukrallah and Yehia Ghanem from Durban
The European Union warned yesterday that it would follow in the footsteps of the US and Israel by pulling out from the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), held in Durban, South Africa, if delegates continued to insist on language equating Zionism with racism.
"If the final resolution continues to assimilate Zionism and racism, France and the European Union delegation will consider leaving the conference following consultations with our European partners," a spokesman for French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin quoted him as saying in a cabinet meeting in Paris yesterday.
According to the BBC, the EU set yesterday evening as a deadline for making progress in removing anti-Israeli language from the Declaration of the WCAR, which is due to end on Friday. European diplomats at Durban were also quoted as saying that the EU is deadlocked in talks with African countries' delegates over the question of reparations for slavery, another issue vehemently opposed by Washington.
African states, strongly lobbied by African American NGOs, had hardened their position on this issue and now want an explicit apology, debt cancellation, more aid and reparations. But the Europeans do not want any mention of reparations in a final document.
"We fear that the issue of reparations may be sabotaged, as the Middle East issue was," Aloiun Tine, the coordinator of African NGOs, was quoted by the BBC as saying.
Giving a voice to the "voiceless... the marginalised, the excluded, the hated" is not without certain strict limitations, it seems. The rhetoric -- reiterated constantly by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and WCAR secretary-general, Mary Robinson -- was belied by the frenzied reaction of Robinson herself, not to mention the US and Israel, to the final Declaration issued by the WCAR's NGO Forum. The Forum, expressing the voices of hundreds of non-governmental organisations and over 7,000 delegates from around the world, had from the opening session on 28 August, set the twin issues of Israeli racist oppression of the Palestinians and reparations for slavery atop their agenda, inducing accusations from Israeli and pro- Zionist groups that the Forum had been "hijacked by the Arabs."
On Saturday night the representatives of 43 caucuses at the NGO Forum voted overwhelmingly in favour of a Declaration and Programme of Action that branded Israel as a racist apartheid state, leading to the rowdy withdrawal of members of the Jewish and European caucuses. But it was not until Tuesday morning that the Declaration was finally issued, following intense pressure on the drafting committee to reintroduce language that had been emphatically voted down by the delegates. Asked, on Monday evening, when the NGO Forum's declaration would be issued, Robinson gave the surprising reply, "no comment."
At a later press conference Robinson lashed out at the NGO document. Expressing her "regret" at language equating Zionism with racism, she said she would not be presenting the NGO Declaration to the governmental conference -- an unprecedented departure from UN tradition.
Drawn up by Palestinian, Arab and anti-Zionist Jewish activists -- the latter having played "an invaluable role", according to Palestinian human rights activist Khedr Shokirat, a leading figure in the Palestinian/Arab caucus -- the document received overwhelming support from the majority of delegates. It includes: "Appalled by the on-going colonial military Israeli occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (the West Bank including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip), we declare and call for an immediate end to the Israeli systematic perpetration of racist crimes including war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing... recognizing that all of these methods are designed to ensure the continuation of an exclusively Jewish state with a Jewish majority and the expansion of its borders to gain more land, driving out the indigenous Palestinian population.
"We declare Israel as a racist, apartheid state in which Israel's brand of apartheid as a crime against humanity has been characterized by separation and segregation, dispossession, restricted land access, denationalization, 'bantustanization' and inhumane acts."
The Palestinian/Arab victory at the NGO Forum, the extent of which surprised even the Arab NGO activists themselves, galvanised the Arab and Islamic group at the governmental conference towards adopting a tougher position on the language to be included in the conference's Declaration on Israeli racist crimes against the Palestinian and Arab peoples.
"It's excellent, excellent," a beaming Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told Al- Ahram Weekly soon after news of the adoption of the NGO declaration reached him.
But no less important a factor in the toughening of the Arab/Islamic position was the extreme intransigence shown by the US, which, according to Arab diplomatic sources, rejected even the mildest reference to Israel in the Declaration's language.
Mohamed Radwani, an aide to the Iranian foreign minister, told the Weekly that "the level of coordination between the Arab and Islamic groups improved qualitatively two days after the beginning of the conference." According to Radwani the Arab states had, in their attempt to show flexibility, substantially lowered the ceiling of their demands at the WCAR, "but this only enticed the other side [the US and Israel] to demand even more concessions," he said.
The language proposed by the Arab and Islamic group, which the US and Israel described as "offensive", included the assertion that Israeli occupation, settlements and military blockades constituted forms of apartheid and racial discrimination, are crimes against humanity and serious threats to international security. The Arab/ Islamic group also sought language calling upon Israel to revise legislation based on racial and religious discrimination, including the Law of Return (which gives automatic Israeli citizenship to any Jew anywhere in the world but denies the right of return to Palestinians) as well as all colonial policies preventing Palestinians from returning to their homes and regaining their property.
The Arab/Islamic group was willing to negotiate, however, and was shocked by the American pull- out.
"We were talking," commented Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, who headed Egypt's delegation in Durban, following news of the US decision to withdraw. Moussa echoed the same sentiment, telling the Weekly that "the Arab states had done their best to ensure the conference's success, but could not do so at the expense of our principles." Moussa added that the final Declaration "must include clear references to the suffering of the Palestinians; foreign occupation; racist policies against Palestinians and Islamophobia."
Over the past few days, Moussa has been part of a group, including representatives of South Africa, Belgium, Norway and Namibia, charged by the conference with the task of "fine tuning" the Declaration language on the Middle East.
A source close to the negotiations revealed that the Arab, Islamic and African countries had made "many concessions" on the twin issues of Palestine and reparations in the days before the American- Israeli pull-out.
"The Arabs had agreed to the removal of the language equating Zionism with racism, while the African states had agreed to annexing the demand for reparations to the Declaration, making it non- binding. But it was clear that the two states would only be satisfied by a complete surrender to all their demands," he said.
Back in Cairo, Maher yesterday lashed out at the US pull-out describing it as "a grave insult to the UN, to all those who attended the meeting, and to the host country, South Africa.
"The principle which the US tried to impose on the conference -- to desist from referring to the Palestinian question -- met with very strong opposition from the participants," he said.
The US pull-out revealed the weakness of its position, argued Maher, who asserted that "public opinion at the conference opposed the US's concerted attempt to prevent the issuing of a resolution condemning Israel as a racist state."
"Is it reasonable," asked Maher, "that a conference which is being held under the auspices of the United Nations, which has an important role in the Middle East question... should be called upon to see, hear or speak nothing except in accordance with the desires of the US and Israel?"
Recommend this page
Related stories:
Focus: WCAR
Breaking the silences 30 August - 5 September 2001
Swept under the rug 23 - 29 August 2001
Justice demands mercy 23 - 29 August 2001
A non-racist Zionism? 23 - 29 August 2001
Will there be a deal in Durban? 16 - 22 August 2001
Reading between the brackets 9 - 15 August 2001
First stop Durban 26 July - 1 August 2001
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
Send a letter to the Editor