Press Review [Archives:2001/51/Press Review]

On 11 December 2001 Ath-Thawra daily devoted its editorial to discussing the final statement issued by the Organization of Islamic Conference’s (OIC) foreign ministers emergency conference held in Doha, Qatar, Monday Dec. 10.
The editorial says despite the importance of the decisions adopted in the emergency meeting of the OIC held in Doha Monday Dec. 10 and some positive elements towards developments of the situations in the occupied Arab territories in the light of the recent Israeli escalation, the positiveness of the resolutions would remain inactive and meant only for information purposes unless their texts are changed into measures and practical steps. They would remain futile without being embodied by a serious and responsible stand leading to decisive encountering of the unprecedented Israeli arrogance especially what is happening inside the occupied Arab territories at present.
The editorial added that the situation clearly indicated that Israel was strongly wont to liquidation of the Palestinian cause and killing the will of the Palestinian people in line with schemes of Sharon’s government intended for expanding suppressive acts, war of annihilation and the hyper use of force and terrorism. This policy intends to put the Palestinian people before only two options: either to give up their land, sovereignty and dignity and their right to self-determination and establishment of their independent state, or facing annihilation with the most sophisticated lethal weapons.
The newspaper’s editorial maintains that against this open aggression any Arab and Islamic remissness would represent a violation of the nation’s principles and denial of the minimum extent of her values in addition to squandering her rights and sanctities. The responsibility dictates on all to take this equation into consideration to occupy its place in Islamic countries political agenda. Thus it makes the results the OIC conference has come out with as a beginning to a unified Islamic attitude working on supporting the right of the Palestinian people who have accepted the option of just and comprehensive peace according to the real bases of this peace. It is not permissible to leave the Palestinian people alone facing the pressures pushing them to surrender to a kind of peace deducting from their national rights based on resolutions of the international legitimacy.
Time has come for the Arab and Islamic countries to work together on adopting the unified address to answer to all the unbalanced and illogic stances taken by this international party or that with regard to development of the conflict in the Middle East. It is especially significant to note that those attitudes intentionally and illogically confuse between the aggression and the principle of self-defense and between the legitimate struggle in resisting occupation and terrorism that is rejected in all its forms. Against this specified situation the stand of the EU foreign ministers in their recent meeting in Brussels came as influenced by the policy based on double standard and not naming things by their actual names. This discloses incapability of the European states of disentangling themselves from the complex of taking an open bias to the Israeli side.
As Arabs it is difficult for us to accept that racial discrimination reflected by the European vision especially that rules of justice contradict concealment of aggression and taking a biased stand towards occupation. We wonder how the European conscience would sleep on those crimes while an entire people are destroyed with missiles and tanks and warplanes.
We also wonder how the European stand has disregarded the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces and Zionist settlers against the innocent and defenseless scores of children, women and elderly people from the Palestinian people killed everyday. One does not know how the European foreign ministers have forgotten the consequences of violating the criteria and toppling the facts and confusion between legitimate resistance and the refused terror. What the many would fear is that such strategy based on siding with injustice and destroying the weaker could be the logic of the new age despite what this could herald of the strength of the state of mutiny against the ethical and humanitarian principles and values.
The editorial concluded that this situation imposes on the Arab and Islamic countries to speed up in uniting their stand of facing this rush which lacks in reality and balance and the absence of the simplest rules of fairness that can preserve security and stability in the world.

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