September, 11th, 2001.
From Palestinian General Delegation in London, Great Britain.
A
British newspaper asked Ambassador Afif Safieh for an article on
response to September, 11th, 2001 attacks. The paper later on decided
not to publish his letter. It is at your disposal.
To: The Times
September 13, 2001
Foreign Desk
From: Afif Safieh
Consistent with my frequently expressed revulsion at "selective
indignation " -depending on the nature of the victims or the identity of
the perpetrators, -I wish to voice my total and unequivocal condemnation
of the horror that took place in the United States.
As a Palestinian, who for twelve endless months witnessed the continuous
daily bombing of Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps, my
sympathy today goes entirely to the victims of this despicable
undertaking. Having watched a cascade of daily funerals, I understand
and share the pain of their families and friends. Having joined the
unheeded call for international protection and the deployment of
international observers in Palestine and having advocated an imposed
solution by the international community on the
basis of international legality, I sincerely wish that international
law, and only that, will guide American decision makers in the aftermath
of this revolting act.
At a moment when globalisation has become an undeniable and
irreversible international reality, now more than ever before, universal
principles and the highest possible standards should be set and equally
observed by everybody all over our " planetary village."
Unfortunately this is not yet the case. In these tragic days we will
hear more of revenge, retaliation and the clash of civilizations, rather
than a
rational debate over why such atrocities find volunteers to accomplish
them.
Alas, I fear that much of the discourse that will pour out of TV
channels will appeal more to the instincts rather than the intelligence
of viewers, to their hatred rather than their humanity.
I have often explained that the way the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the status of Jerusalem are addressed,
handled or mishandled, will affect relations not only on the regional
level, but also on a global one.
Whether there is one mankind or different kinds of men and women is not
a rhetorical or a polemical question. Since the inception of the
Palestinian tragedy, the Arab and Muslim world had the impression of
total Western insensitivity to their ordeal. The "exploits" that led to
the dispossession and the dispersion of the Palestinian people were
welcomed in mainstream Western public opinion with admiration, applause
and were considered sometimes even as "miraculous".
I
personally tend to believe in the innocence of God even though the
Zionist project was presented as "a divine mission for a chosen people
on a promised land". We were inundated with massive propaganda about the
desert turning green, but nobody bothered to answer the moral questions:
in the name of what and since when does the planting of a tree justify
the uprooting of a human being? Since when does planting a forest
justify the uprooting of an entire people?
Israel still addresses the Palestinian refugee issue in the most
dismissive manner. Their possible return is seen as a threat to the
Jewish nature of the state. But no one in a senior capacity will take
this argument to its logical conclusion that the Palestinian refugees
were precisely driven out of their homeland with that purpose in mind.
From the very beginning there were
successful attempts to trivialise and banalise the Palestinian tragedy
as though Palestinian victims were fatherless, motherless, childless,
nameless, faceless and worthless.
I
have never likened the Nakba to the Holocaust. My conviction has always
been that there is no need for comparisons and historical analogies. No
one people have a monopoly on human suffering and every ethnic tragedy
stands on its own. If I were a Jew or a Gypsy, Nazi barbarity would be
the most atrocious event in history. If I were a Black African, it would
be slavery and apartheid. If I were a Native American, it would be the
discovery of the New World by European explorers and settlers that
resulted in near-total extermination. If I were an Armenian, it would be
the Ottoman massacres. If I were a Palestinian, it would be the Nakba/
Catastrophe of 1948. Humanity should consider all the above repugnant.
I
do not consider it advisable to debate hierarchies of suffering. I do
not know how to quantify pain or measure suffering but I do know that we
are not children of a lesser God.
In the United States there will be a debate on whether yesterday's event
will result in isolationism, unilateralism, multilateralism or
interventionism.
American foreign policy in the Middle East has been most intriguing. It
is the only remaining superpower in the international system yet in our
part of the world it seemed as though it had abdicated this role in
favour of its regional ally, Israel, which it shields unconditionally in
the UN and elsewhere. The U.S.A. is committed to Israel's existence, a
message everybody had already understood since decades. Does it need
also to endorse the territorial appetite, the expansionist inclinations
of its regional protégée?
To condone its ferocious repression of our cry for freedom out of
captivity and bondage?
American society is a nation of nations. In today's monopolar
international system, nonalignment in regional conflicts should be what
characterizes American foreign policy, because alignment on the
preferences of one belligerent actor results not only in antagonizing
other regional players but also in alienating one component of its
domestic national fabric.
In his Memoirs "Present at the creation", former American Secretary of
State Dean Acheson writes that the UN Charter was a condensed version of
American political philosophy. All I can hope for is that America will
reconcile tomorrow its power with its principles.
Afif Safieh
the Palestinian General delegate
to the United Kingdom and to the Holy See.
End of letter.
While the world was realising the horror of September, 11th attacks;
At the time American news agencies were showing the pictures of few
Palestinians who were delighted with the attacks on America, Israel
intensified its campaign against our people;
· Sep, 12th, 2001; Israeli American sponsored terrorism
continues; Israeli forces invade Palestinian city of Jenin kill nine
including a ten years old girl. from CNN.
· Sep, 16th, 2001: Israeli American sponsored
terrorism continues: Israeli forces invade the Palestinian city of
Ram-Allah, kills a 14 years old boy. Irish Times
· Sep, 16th, 2001:Palestinian ambulance driver was killed
by Israeli American sponsored tank shell in the Palestinian city
of Bethlehem. Irish Times
Israel's revenge for the assassination of a high ranking Israeli
official: Attacking the Palestininian city of Jenin, Israeli American
sponsored forces kill two including a 10 years old girl in her way to
school. from
CNN.
To read the the story "Christmas 2001 in Palestine", click here
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