[WCUSP] Fwd: UN group: Israel/Palestine at heart of conflicts (CS Monitor 11/14)

[yvonne simmons]

--- pjw at agora.rdrop.com wrote:

> Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2006 10:25:26 -0800 (PST)
> From: pjw at agora.rdrop.com
> To: Peace and Justice Works <pjw at pjw.info>
> CC: Yvonne Simmons <roweenayvonne at yahoo.com>
> Subject: UN group: Israel/Palestine at heart of
> conflicts (CS Monitor 11/14)
> 
> Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:59:35 -0800 (PST) From:
> jim rissman
> 
> from the November 14, 2006 edition -
> http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1114/p07s01-wogi.html
> No clash of civilizations, says UN report
> A UN-sponsored group says the Israel-Palestinian
> conflict is the main
> cause of global tensions.
> By Dan Murphy | Staff writer of The Christian
> Science Monitor
> 
> CAIRO - A UN-sponsored group called the Alliance of
> Civilizations, created 
> last year to find ways to bridge the growing divide
> between Muslim and 
> Western societies, released a first report Monday
> that says the conflict 
> over Israel and the Palestinian territories is the
> central driver in 
> global tensions.
> 
> "Our emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is
> not meant to imply 
> that it is the overt cause of all tensions between
> Muslim and Western 
> societies," write the report's authors, a group of
> academics and present 
> and former government officials from 19 different
> countries. 
> "Nevertheless, it is our view that the
> Israeli-Palestinian issue has taken 
> on a symbolic value that colors cross cultural and
> political relations ... 
> well beyond its limited geographic scope."
> 
> But while the authors hope their report will
> invigorate and create 
> cross-cultural dialogue, its tone implies that it is
> unlikely to be well 
> received by the United States and Israel, focusing
> as it does on 
> allegations of double standards by those two nations
> while giving less 
> time to the faults of the Palestinians or specific
> Muslim governments.
> 
> Criticism of US policies, though at times oblique,
> is a major feature of 
> the document and hits on themes that have angered
> representatives of the 
> Bush administration in the past. For instance, in a
> discussion of Al 
> Qaeda's attack on the US on Sept. 11, the report
> states: "Later, these 
> attacks were presented as one of the justifications
> for the invasion of 
> Iraq, whose link with them has never been
> demonstrated, feeding a 
> perception among Muslim societies of unjust
> aggression stemming from the 
> West."
> 
> While that is indeed a common view in Muslim
> countries, it is unlikely to 
> gain the favor of the current US administration,
> whose representative to 
> the United Nations, John Bolton, is an ardent
> supporter of the invasion of 
> Iraq and a frequent critic of the world body.
> Earlier this year, Mr. 
> Bolton characterized the UN Human Rights Commission
> as packed with 
> officials from "some of the world's most notorious
> human rights abusers."
> 
> The report is the result of a UN-sanctioned "High
> Level Group" meeting of 
> some twenty "eminent personalities" that UN
> Secretary-General Kofi Annan 
> appointed last year. The group, which was
> cosponsored by the Prime 
> Ministers of Turkey and Spain and included among its
> authors Nobel Peace 
> Prize-winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former
> Iranian president Mohammed 
> Khatami, issued the final report on Nov. 13 at its
> final meeting in 
> Istanbul.
> 
> To be sure, the report is also framed as a direct
> challenge to the notion 
> that a "Clash of Civilizations" is imminent - a
> concept first popularized 
> by Samuel Huntington's 1996 book of the same name.
> 
> In a statement, Mr. Kofi Annan said it was clear
> that religion is not at 
> the root of current tensions.
> 
> "The problem is not the Koran or the Torah or the
> Bible,'' Mr. Annan said. 
> "The problem is never the faith, it is the faithful
> and how they behave 
> towards each other."
> 
> That sentiment was echoed in an editorial published
> in the Houston 
> Chronicle on Sunday by three of the report's
> authors, who also said that 
> political repression in the Muslim world contributes
> to extremism.
> 
> "Denying peaceful opposition movements the freedom
> to express their views 
> and jailing their supporters generate anger and
> resentment, encouraging 
> some to join violent groups,'' wrote Mr. Tutu,
> former Indonesian foreign 
> minister Ali Alatas, and Andri Azoulay, an advisor
> to Morocco's King 
> Muhammed VI.
> 
> "When Western governments lend their support -
> tacitly or overtly - to 
> authoritarian regimes, they become part of the
> problem," the authors 
> wrote.
> 
> The overall objective of the paper is to set out
> problems between the 
> Muslim and the West as a matter of politics, and not
> of culture, and tends 
> to see anger and misunderstanding as largely a
> problem of inadequate 
> education.
> 
> For instance, the authors point to a recent Gallup
> poll that found 57 
> percent of Americans either responded "nothing" or
> "I don't know" when 
> asked what they most admired about Muslim societies,
> as evidence for a 
> need for education systems in both the West and
> Muslim countries to 
> provide a "basic understanding of religious
> traditions other than their 
> own."
> 
> The authors also point to another recent survey that
> found 30 percent of 
> US government money for cultural exchanges go to
> programs with Europe - 
> the societies with which the US has the most in
> common - while just 6 
> percent go to programs with the Middle East,
> arguably the place where such 
> efforts could do the most good.
> 
> How to build an alliance of civilizations The UN's
> High Level Group report 
> includes a set of concrete recommendations for the
> international 
> community. Among the recommendations:
> 
> • The international community should draft a white
> paper to analyze the 
> Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
> 
> • An international conference should be convened to
> reinvigorate the 
> Middle East peace process.
> 
> • Ruling parties in the Muslim world should provide
> space for the 
> participation of peaceful political groups.
> 
> • Leaders and shapers of public opinion should
> behave responsibly and work 
> to promote understanding among cultures.
> 
> • The UN should appoint a high representative to
> assist in defusing 
> cross-cultural tensions.
> 
> • The UN should establish a forum for the alliance
> of civilizations under 
> its auspices.
> 
> • Journalists should receive improved training in
> intercultural 
> understanding.
> 
> • Media content should aim to promote intercultural
> dialogue.
> 
> • Educational materials and media literacy programs
> in schools should face 
> a critical review.
> 
> • Governments should increase the number of
> international youth exchanges 
> and youth-oriented websites.
> 
> • The international community should create media
> campaigns to combat 
> discrimination.
> 
> Source: United Nations Fourth High Level Group,
www.unaoc.org



 
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