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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