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http://www.MiddleEast.Org/mertv/116
MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 9/02: When plans were being made for the World Conference on Racism...etc...now taking place in Durban, SA, it was the heyday of the "Peace Process" and the very term "apartheid" was nowhere to be heard in much of the establishment media, certainly not in the USA. No one then expected Ariel Sharon to be PM of Israel. No one then expected the tanks and figher planes of war to be shelling and bombing surrounded and besieged Palestinian cities and villages. BUT even so, the basic conditions and mindset being condemned by so much of the world in Durban at the moment were very much visible not far below the surface for those who wanted to see at that time; and so what is happening now should not come as such a surprise to so many. For those who want to see what some of the world's experts were in fact saying in 1997 we suggest our own TV program made that year -- "Peace Process - Real or Phony?" -- which can be watched at: http://www.MiddleEast.Org/mertv/116 as well as other programs available at http://www.MERTV.org/archives.htm
CNN - 2 September - DURBAN, South Africa: A human rights forum running parallel to the U.N. World Conference on Racism ended rancorously on Sunday with a declaration that branded Israel a "racist apartheid state" guilty of "war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing."
The declaration, adopted by 3,000 delegates from 44 regions to the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) forum, shocked Jewish groups, and many walked out of the meeting. Some other international human rights groups also moved to distance themselves from the declaration. "Israel has committed serious crimes against Palestinian people but it is simply not accurate to use the word genocide and to equate Zionism with racism ... it is now a matter of damage control," said Reed Brody, executive director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty International also balked at the declaration. "We are not ready to make the assertion that Israel is engaged in genocide," said Claudio Cordone, a spokesman for the London-based group.
Even Mary Robinson, the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights and general-secretary of the World Conference, said that the NGO statement's equation of Zionism with racism was regrettable.
The Palestinians have a right to protest their victimization, Robinson said, but "it is not appropriate that text emerged that revictimizes (the Palestinians) and is hurtful in itself."
The NGO declaration mirrored the struggles of the U.N. conference, where Robinson has worked to calm the brewing controversy over language condemning Israel.
The United States, Canada and Israel sent lower-level delegations to the U.N. conference in protest of what they see as anti-Israel sentiment at the summit. The United States has threatened to withdraw before the conference's September 7 end date if language it considers offensive is not removed.
The United States was "extremely unhappy" about the removal of clauses condemning anti-Semitism from the final draft of the NGO declaration, a U.S. official told Reuters news service.
But the Palestinians and other Arab groups were pleased with the NGO document.
"It's just the facts," said Shwqi Issa, spokesman for the Arab caucus at the forum. "This is what should be from the (non-governmental organizations). They are not like the governments. They are here to protect the victims of racism."
Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, called the conference "very successful" and said that "it broke the silence of conspiracy of governments."
Jewish groups, however, said the NGO forum deck was stacked against them from the start.
"They've invalidated themselves," said Stacy Burdett, an associate director with the Anti-Defamation League. "A conference against racism has turned into a conference promoting racism."
And Alan Baker, Israel's legal adviser to the World Conference, said that NGO delegates "have only succeeded in turning the conference into a circus for Israeli bashing. "It's inciting hatred," he said.
Another spokesman for the Israeli delegation to the U.N. conference told The Associated Press that he hoped delegates to that meeting would take note and understand that what happened at the NGO forum "should not happen at the U.N. conference."
"Hate is taking over," said Noam Katz. "It totally contradicts the aims of the World Conference against Racism, to fight racism and promote tolerance."
The NGO document has been presented to the United Nations to be incorporated into the World Conference's document when those delegates close their meeting on September 7.
Observers say the harsh anti-Israeli language in the non-governmental summit's final declaration has increased tension at the U.N. conference, attended by representatives of more than 150 governments.
Resolutions at non-governmental forums have no binding authority but observers say they increasingly influence the final declarations adopted at the U.N. governmental meetings.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned delegates at the main meeting on Saturday that rows over the Middle East and controversy over how to handle the historical issue of slavery threatened the conference.
Reparations to Africans for centuries of slavery remain a stumbling block. African and Caribbean states want a formal apology, and divisions have emerged over whether reparations should be paid to descendants of slavery.
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| Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/9/373.htm |