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The Conference on Racism in Durban
Is Not Neutral
Nor Is It PROMOTING PEACEBy THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF JEWS FROM EGYPT
The UN Conference on Racism in Durban, has unfortunately been influenced by biased extremists, malicious propagandists, and ignorant people, who do not know the real situation and facts in the Middle East. It is sad that Israel is the only country mentioned as racist in the whole world, though at the preparations for the Conference at the UN in Geneva, a firm decision was taken not to mention any country.
Objective peace researchers all over the world, should be there to denounce the lies that are told, and to give a balanced and true picture of the Palestinian - Israeli Conflict. The true situation is that it is a Political conflict and not a Racist conflict. Israel has never educated its children to hate.
However, the racist education extremist Palestinians have fed their children and adults with for more than the last three decades, has already been condemned by many. Racist teachings like "Jews are evil" - "Give an example of the evil attempts of the Jews, Islamic Education for Seventh Grade, p. 19., and "Liberate through blood" a poem taught to 8th graders, from Reader and Literary Texts, p. 135, and so much more, should be denounced and condemned by anti racists and peace lovers and researchers all over the world.
From my own experience I know that a voice raised is a voice heard, even in such a biased set-up as the Durban Conference.
I attended the Hague Peace Conference in 2000, opened by Kofi Annan, and was appalled to hear some extremists speaking about Israel as a racist and "apartheid country" that practices "ethnic cleansing." In the discussion that ensued, I took up the microphone and responded by giving some factual and historical facts, among them:
1) Twenty per cent of Israel's citizens are Palestinians, they are represented in the Knesset - the Israeli Parliament, the Histadrut (Workers Union), etc., and have the opportunity to live in the only truly democratic country in the Middle East. They know this and fully appreciate it. 2) There were almost one million Jews in the Arab countries, as Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, in 1948 - however, today there are only a few hundreds living in all those countries together. They were either thrown out or they fled out of fear, over the bitter and dangerous years. All their vast assets and property which amounts to billions of dollars, was confiscated by the various Arab governments. So which is the apartheid and "ethnic cleansing" country? Israel or those Arab countries? How come the Taliban or the treatment of the Kurds, etc, are not major subjects of racism at this not neutral Durban Conference?
Many people came afterwards to ask why Israel did not explain about the ousting of Jews from ArabLands? This is one of the big mistakes of Israel, not to show the common history of the Palestinians and the Jews of Arab lands. There are many other mistakes, but racism is not one of them!
This is why it is good that true peace lovers and objective peace researchers, from all over the world, are participating in the Durban Conference and are bringing real, objective facts, including the basic fact recognized by most, that Israel is still the only true democracy in the Middle East.
It is time for the PA leadership to take responsibility for PEACE EDUCATION, as well as A RETURN TO THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS TABLE.
We look forward to a day when the PA will come to the peace table in good faith, having completely ceased all the racist education of their people, and having stopped cruel terrorist attacks on innocent people and children going to school in Israel.. How they will undo the damage they have done to the Palestinian people remains to be seen. The Palestinians have "groomed an entire generation for bloodshed and murder." For peace to be achieved, the PA will need to provide ongoing programs of PEACE CULTURE EDUCATIONS, and introduce peace values in the versions of all their speeches,television programs, educational textbooks, and newspapers to the world press, for many years to come.
All this and so much more has to be explained at the Conference, where most people are not aware of the real situation in the Middle East.
They should not only hear one side of the story which is often distorted, but should have the benefit of hearing objective reporting of experienced and neutral peace researchers.
If good and objective lecturers and peace researchers participate, as for instance members of IFLAC: The International Forum for the Culture of Peace, they will be able to change the whole atmosphere of this conference. They could show that most of the people in Israel and in Palestine, really want peace with their neighbors, based on objective peace negotiations, and not on terrorism and counter shootings. History has shown that when people move, leaders will follow.
It is a great pity that the UN is missing an opportunity of condemning true rampant racism in the world. This could have been a great conference, where the racist and rogue countries and governments could have been divulged and condemned by the democratic world. However, what we are presented with at the upcoming Durban UN Conference, is an Anti-Semitic set-up to use the Jews again as scapegoats for all the racist wrongs and wrongdoings going on in the Middle East and in the world. And This racist attitude has to be denounced and totally condemned.
We should not keep silent, we should reveal the truth about real racism, and bring some hope to the world, that it can be otherwise.
Ada AharoniChair: IFLAC
The International Forum for the Culture of Peace
HSJE Committee and the Regional Officers
Open letter to all those caring organizations and individuals that produced that blatant racist NGO declaration in Durban, South Africa, today September 2 2001.
By specifically seeking out Jews to condemn them -and only them- in the same, repugnant manner as the Naziıs did last century, you have managed to place yourselves on par with those Fascist lowlifes whose aim was the total extermination of the Jews, something the Romans, Christians, Muslims and Communists were not able to accomplish during the past 20 centuries, no matter how hard they tried.
By focusing on Israel alone, you explicitly ignore the plight of millions and millions of real victims of racism, tyranny and oppression. Any fool can understand that your reprehensible anti-Israel and anti-Semitic declaration is an unambiguous encouragement to persecute Jews again.
You must surely be longingly awaiting the follow-up Kristallnacht. We wonder whether you will be actively participating with the genuine racists and fanatic assassins you so futilely incited, or just watch the developments on TV from the comfort of your couch. How low can your integrity sink, even remotely thinking that by condemning the Jews, all human problems in the world will automatically vanish? A real déja-vu. Wouldnıt it be great to solve the worldıs problems by making Israel just disappear, and annihilate those pesky Jews -and why not those handful Middle Eastern Christians too? You donıt seem to care one iota, anyway. You must be ready to play Santa Claus, and offer Israel to those gentle, peace-loving, egalitarian and righteous Palestinian masses. I assume you are already preparing yourselves with the necessary slogans (to save your skin): "Long live the Muslims, may your men rule my life, may your martyrs take our women and children, may your mosques flourish in my backyard. Here, take all you want, and may peace be upon you."
You know that Israel is amongst the worldıs top 5 nations (in percentage per capita) where it regards giving humanitarian aid, in spite of the fact that certain international aid organizations still not recognize Israel, let alone want to work side by side with them. From time to time our charitable aid is even denied for political reasons. You know that we have volunteer medical personnel working in many African, Latin American and Asian countries, for which we sometimes have to bribe local government officials to allow us to give that aid. Israel spends more money and offers more physical help than all Arab nations together. If you were a genuine humanitarian organization, you would work with us, not against us to placate a handful of violent extremists. You know what Israel and Jewish humanitarian organizations do to help the deprived and disadvantaged. You know that we have spent more than any organization or country in the Palestinian territories.
Your loathsome declaration has made you lose track of what your organizations really stand for. Do you exist to help the needy, or to render lip service to political extortion? Do you really think that we Jews are warmongers and want nothing else than the death of all Arabs and Muslims, the destruction of Islam, and, what the heck, letıs throw in the eradication of Christianity too?
If Arafat and his cronies donıt want to deal with us, donıt want to sit around the same table as us, well, too bad. The Palestinians can have their Palestine, with or without Arafat. They can have it tomorrow, if they want. The problem is, that Egyptian mercenary, Arafat with his charming 17 terrorist organizations donıt want any Palestine at all. They werenıt interested in 1947, and they never established a Palestinian state when they had the land between 1948 and 1967. They didnıt want to accept any solution from 1993 until today. All they want is the worldıs attention, their 40 minutes every day on TV, but especially those millions in charitable contributions from the USA, the European Union and the Arab nations, from domestic extortion, international drug trafficking, weapon deals, and, not to forget, from YOU, the NGOıs!!!
All we, Israelis, want is just to be left in peace. Most of us have had enough, of this way of life, fearing a suicide bomb explosion, a mortar or sniper attack at every given moment. We have had enough. Let us live our lives, let us have our tiny speck of land. Even if it is a must that all Arab countries be Judenrein (which is virtually the case already), so be it. We already absorbed a million Jewish refugees from Arab countries, and another 2 million from other places where we were not wanted. We will somehow manage to get our fellow citizens out of Gaza and the West Bank, even though most cities there have centuries of Jewish heritage. If youıre not wanted, and rather see you dead, well, then you have to take the consequences. Weıd rather live quietly, than die violently for a religious tomb or your old house, even if rightfully yours. But there is a limit, and that is called ISRAEL: we will fight for our country, for our only way to survive, for our lives.
We are a 52-years young, democratic nation that surely still has to learn how to deal with certain social problems. Our government is democratically chosen, our citizens have equal rights and equal representation, as is the case in (just) 38% of the world. Israel has freedom of religion and speech: we donıt jail nor execute journalists, university professors and demonstrators because they happen to have another view. We are the only country in the world where its road signs are in 3 languages: Hebrew, Arabic and English: what more evidence of a multi-cultural, multi-racial society. We recognize that we are not infallible, and are willing to learn to improve our relationship with all segments of our population, but we will not self-destruct.
The past 12 months we have started to feel annoyed, seeing, reading and hearing over and over and over again how we are portrayed as the villains of the world, how our flag and effigies of our school buses and political leaders are burned, how little kids are forced to parade in front of TV cameras, showing how they are "willing" to be a suicide bomber and assassinate Jews, how crazed those "peaceful" demonstrators are vowing to kill all Jews, how distorted history has become with denials of the Holocaust, Judaism, yes, even Jews themselves, how frightening it is to hear those heroic songs, sermons by Muftiıs, and by heads of Arab states, inciting their fellow Muslims to eradicate every single Jew, and promising all martyrs perpetual life in heaven with 74 virgins. Yes, we are angry, and, yes, we are frightened.
Thank you for your focus on us, Jews and Israel. You are not only making life hard for us, but apparently you have made it very difficult for yourselves as well. We are sure that somehow, sometime you see that realism is required to do what you stand for, and not hotheaded fanaticism. We wish you luck trying to get yourselves out of this quagmire.
Robert Barzelay & friends.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF JEWS FROM EGYPT
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