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- An Open Letter to
- Mr. Thabo Mbeki
-
(President of the Republic of South
Africa)
by Uri Davis
Dear Mr. President,
I take the liberty to address you as the host of the UN World Conference
Against Racism (WCAR), Durban, 28 August - 7 September 2001.
I write as an individual citizen of the State of Israel; Chair of
AL-BEIT:
Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Israel; and expert on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute
for
Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, University of Durham and the
Institute
of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter.
Witnessing on TV news bulletins the Israeli armour roll into Ramallah
and
other cities in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip; and shocked
by
the intensifying war crimes and state terrorism perpetrated by the
Israeli
occupation army against the Palestinian people allegedly in response to
Palestinian individual and/or militia acts of terrorism; and dismayed by
the invasion of the Israeli tanks into the Headquarters of President
Yasser
Arafat in Ramallah - I was motivated to write this Open Letter and urge
you
to act to the best of your ability to stop the atrocities caused by the
Israeli occupation and perpetrated by the Israeli occupation army.
As an individual human person I have the humanitarian duty, like all
other
human persons worldwide, to raise my voice and mobilize to the best of
my
ability against injustice and against the perpetration of war crimes
wherever they may be committed. As a citizen of the State of Israel, let
alone a citizen of the State of Israel classified as a Jew, I have an
additional responsibility to shout in protest louder and mobilize more
urgently against injustice and war crime perpetrated by my Government,
since, as a citizen of the State of Israel, these atrocities are, alas,
committed in my name.
I therefore raise my voice as loud as I am able to and shout: NOT IN MY
NAME!. Not in my name as an individual person. Not in my name as a
citizen.
Not in my name as a Jew.
As an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I am acutely aware that
the Palestinian people, expelled and ethnically cleansed from their
homeland under the cover of the 1948 war, resisting for nearly forty
years
the Israeli occupation of 1967, and struggling for their survival in the
ugly shadow of the Sharon Government, are now threatened with the
horrific
dangers of additional massacres and renewed ethnic cleansing.
The Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is fully committed to the
maintenance and expansion of the illegal Israeli settlement project in
the
occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Unless the Government of the State of
Israel is firmly made to understand that its failure to end the Israeli
occupation and illegal Israeli settlement projects will meet with
African,
European and international sanctions - it will, I am afraid, not be
deterred. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and a good many of his Ministers,
seem to believe that, if necessary, they would be justified to advance
their illegal designs for the occupied West Bank (including Jerusalem)
and
Gaza Strip also through the perpetration of war crimes on a massive
scale,
attempting to repeat the mass ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the
Israeli
army under the cover of the 1948 war, and expel the Palestinian people
resident in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - this time under the cover
of
"war against terrorism".
I beg you President Thabo Mbeki, in this critical circumstance, please
urgently intensify your action in defence of the Palestinian people
victimized by the Israeli occupation and threatened with renewed mass
massacres and ethnic cleansing. Do not allow the fact that Israel will
not
mass annihilate Palestinians in gas chambers and burn their bodies in
crematoria blind you to the cruel inhumanity of the Israeli occupation
and
the real danger hanging over the Palestinian people of massacres and
mass
expulsion from their home villages and towns.
At this time Israeli troops sealing off Ramallah and other Palestinian
cities. I get e-mail reports to the effect that people are not allowed
to
go out nor allowed in. Those travelling, desperately searching for
alternative ways and traveling in groups, have Israeli troops firing
upon
them. Women carrying their children who were trying desperately to flee
from Ramallah, carrying infants and toddlers in their arms, together
with
their young children, are reduced to running along in the rain through
the
fields, slipping and falling on the rocks, trying to reach safety, with
Israeli jeeps speeding across the terrain pulling up from every
direction
and shooting at the women and children, chasing down people, hunting
them
in the fields.
With Ramallah and other Palestinian localities under total and extended
curfew, Israeli troops are reported to systematically break into homes,
tear families asunder and take away every man 15-60 years of age and
herd
them into detention camps and/or dump them in the Gaza Strip. Many
families
are not able to trace their relatives and fear for their lives. Please,
President Tabo Mbeki, urge your colleagues in the African Union, the
European Union, and the Non-Aligned Movement to act NOW and not wait
until
we hear that hundreds if not thousands of Palestinians have been
annihilated in mass massacres similar to Sabra and Shatila twenty years
ago
and Deir Yasin, Duwayma and Tantura fifty odd years ago.
I want to draw your attention to Articles 2 and 4 and their respective
Joint Declarations in the EURO-Mediterranean Agreement Establishing an
Association Between the European Communities and Their Member States of
the
One Part, and the State of Israel of the Other Part signed on 1 June
2000.
I believe South Africa and other African states have similar agreements
with the EU. I urge you, President Tabo Mbeki, to act as forcefully as
you
can as an individual, and as the President of the Republic of South
Africa
representing your State in the African Union, the European Union, and
the
non-Aligned Movement, with the view to motivate the AU, the EU and the
UN
to exercise their responsibilities under the UN Charter, the Maastricht
Treaty and the African Charter in order to secure that the State of
Israel,
a member state of the United Nations Organization, comply with the terms
of
the requirement of all international conventions to which the State of
Israel is a signatory, including the in the EU-Israel Association
Agreement
above, namely, that it base its internal and international relations on
respect for human rights and democratic principles.
In my humble estimation, Israeli occupation and settlement policies, let
alone the current atrocities and war crimes perpetrated by the
Government
of the State of Israel against the Palestinian people, cannot, by any
stretch of the imagination, be said to be consistent with respect for
human
rights and democratic principles and represent a blatant violation of an
essential elements UN Covenants and international law.
In order to reduce the danger of further massacres and ethnic cleansing
such as are likely otherwise to be perpetrated by the Israeli occupation
army against the civilian Palestinian population - the AU, the EU and
the
UN need to inform the Government of the State of Israel that unless
Israel
complies with UN Security Council Resolutions, beginning with immediate
compliance with the most recent Resolution of 29 March 2002 within a
period
of no longer than one week, to be followed with subsequent compliance of
all UN resolutions relevant to the question of Palestine including UN
Security Council Resolutions 242, 338 and 194 - the AU, the EU and the
UN
will act witout delay to suspend the privileges accorded to the State of
Israel under all relevant UN Covenants and other international
agreements,
including the said EU-Israel Association Agreement.
I am afraid that nothing short of that will do.
Please President Thabo Mbeki, please act NOW!
Sincerely,
Uri Davis
(Dr)
Uri Davis
is Chair
of AL-BEIT: Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Israel.
Source:
by courtesy & ©
200 2 Media Review Network &
Uri Davis
by the same author:
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