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Arabs Back Intifada at "any price" as Muslims demand action
CAIRO, May 19 (Islamonline & News Agencies) - Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo agreed Saturday that the Palestinian intifada or uprising against Israeli occupation will continue at "any the price" as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Israeli blockade has cost the Palestinians five billion dollars.
"There is a unanimous decision to continue the Palestinian resistance and the intifada, whatever the price," Mussa said after more than two hours of closed-door deliberations by a ministerial Arab League committee.
The committee "will issue resolutions to support that position and to face up to the (Israeli) aggression which no longer fears any force in the world, which believes it has the complete protection of the (UN) Security Council amid European hesitation and Arab weakness," he said.
"We agreed at this morning's meeting that our credibility is in the balance and that we are required to defend not only that credibility, but the challenge to our identity and the whole Arab system," Mussa said.
He added that the Arab world couldn't accept the peace that Israel wants to impose on them. Mussa earlier called for "urgent international protection" for the Palestinians in light of Israeli "war crimes."
"Rapid international intervention to put an end to the organized slaughter ... and urgent international protection (of the Palestinians) are needed to deal with the war crimes committed against civilians," Mussa said.
He was speaking at the follow-up committee meeting on the almost eight-month Palestinian uprising which groups the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen as well as the Palestinians and the Arab League chief.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had said Saturday the Palestinian intifada has cost the Palestinians five billion dollars since it broke out on September 28 last year,
"Losses have surpassed the five million dollar figure in the eight months of the intifada," Arafat said at the Arab League committee meeting. . "There are 360,000 people out of work (due to Israel's clampdown on the Palestinian territories) and our national product has lost more than 65 percent of its value," he said.
The Palestinian finance ministry said last month the Palestinian territories have suffered huge losses due to the Israeli blockade since the start of the Palestinian uprising last September.
The blockades, a punitive action which the Israeli army says is aimed a containing the intifada, has ruined the economy of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both under Israeli occupation since 1967.
According to the United Nations, unemployment has reached as high as 60 percent in some parts of the Gaza Strip and averages 40 percent in the West Bank, compared to 11 percent before the start of the unrest.
The Palestinian leader said that losses since the Arab summit in Amman at the end of March had amounted to 750 million dollars, according to the estimates of a Palestinian report he presented to the meeting.
According to the report, at least 70 million dollars in Arab aid is needed each month to support the Palestinian economy and help the victims of the intifada. An Arab summit in Cairo last October set up two funds worth a total of a billion dollars to support the intifada.
Meanwhile Qatar, as president of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), urged the UN Security Council on Saturday to act in the face of Israel's "savage aggressions" against the Palestinians.
Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, made the call in a meeting with the ambassadors in Doha of the five major powers on the Security Council, the Gulf Arab state's official news agency QNA reported.
Sheikh Hamad urged the world body "to assume its responsibilities in the face of the dangerous situation in the region because of Israel's savage aggressions against the Palestinian people".
Qatar has called a May 26 foreign ministers meeting in Doha of the 56-member OIC to discuss the dangers of the escalating Palestinian-Israeli conflict. On Friday, Israeli F-16 fighters went into action against the Palestinian territories.
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