Right of peoples to self-determination – CHR – NGO statement

 THE RIGHT OF PEOPLES TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND ITS

APPLICATION TO PEOPLES UNDER COLONIAL OR ALIEN DOMINATION

OR FOREIGN OCCUPATION

Written statement* submitted by the International Organization for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD), a non-governmental organization in special consultative status

  The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.

[29 December 2004]

* This written statement is issued, unedited, in the language(s) received from the submitting non-governmental organization(s).

For 50 years, people from the four corners of the globe have been watching and hearing the same scenes on TV. These are scenes of people who are attacking others in their own houses and lands, using planes, tanks, guns and missiles. They are killing women and children, destroying houses, bearing away the soil and uprooting trees.

Since those attacked only have stones to defend themselves with, they throw them at tanks and armored cars in a desperate gesture. When they give up all hope and are no longer able to endure humiliation, they blow themselves up amidst those they believe to be the source of their sorrow and pain.

It is a source of anxiety and disappointment to us – that is, nongovernmental organizations – to see that these scenes and screams which are seen and whose roar is heard by humanity around the world almost everyday have become for some routine scenes which do not awaken in them any pain or outrage. And it is what makes this situation a serious one. Human society has recurrently seen and heard much of this, so much in fact that it no longer worries about the dramatic incidents and horrors taking place around it. This has incited the forces of evil and the henchmen of darkness to become totally indifferent to moral and human values and to the resolutions of international law. The most recent tragedy that startled the whole world is the stand of the Israeli and American leaderships on the recent decision of the International Court of Justice about the wall of racism which was constructed in Palestine and which the international community demands to be dismantled. International Zionism and its stooges on the American Right would not have dared to oppose a judgment rendered by a college of 14 judges from the International Court of Justice had it not been for their immoral power, arrogance, extreme racism and disdain of international public opinion.

It is high time these extremist Zionist and American leaders realized that the dominion and expansion they strive to achieve in this region is impossible and will only cause more bloodshed and bring suffering to all parties including the Jews arriving on the scene themselves. Bush and his right-wing assistants have certainly not studied history; otherwise they would have realized that the Arab region, with its ancient civilization and history, is not the same as the American continent was when it was invaded by the whites during the 13^th and 14^th centuries. The famous British historian Arnold J. Toynbee has said that the Israeli entity was arbitrarily implanted into a region inhabited by civilization that stretches back for millennia.  This disfigured entity, he adds, should adapt itself and cooperate fairly with the centuries-old region around it or else it will be rejected as is any foreign body.

One might wonder why our organization keeps repeating such statements. Our answer is that we voice and repeat these sad facts in order to make the world hear them and pay attention to the danger of the situation and all the catastrophes they will bring to the world. The world should bear in mind a plain truth: this entity which was arbitrarily implanted into the region is an extremely racist one, an entity which owns a nuclear bomb and arrogantly refuses any international control on this dangerous weapon.

On this basis our organization requests and appeals to the experts and to all non-governmental organizations that really represent the peoples of the world to remain alert to these dangers, which jeopardize not only the Arab region but the world as a whole. Nothing would be more effective and influential than for a truthful statement to be issued by this meeting, warning the leaders of Zionism that the international community, just as it rejected racist Nazism in the past, now vehemently, firmly, and clearly rejects the new racism that has become established in the mind of those who dream of a greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates as symbolized by the two blue lines in the Israeli flag. We all have a human duty towards our Palestinian brothers, be they Christians, Jews, or Muslims, those who want to live a peaceful and decent life, cooperating with their neighbors in this holly region. It is our duty to use all possible means and ways to join them in calling for the creation of a secular state in Palestine, a State that would be a foundation for peace and cooperation in the region.

This is indeed a great dream, to which all honest people should hold fast and defend however severe the obstacles facing them are. It is certainly one of humanity’s great dreams but it is still possible to make this dream a reality. Did not all of humanity’s great achievements start out as dreams?

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