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Racism Conference Works on Middle East Draft Text
DURBAN, South Africa, Sept 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Difficult talks on how a global racism conference should tackle the Middle East resumed Wednesday among a small group of U.N. member states after a walkout by the United States and Israel.
"The talks are going on, but I cannot tell you whether they will achieve a consensus," a source close to the discussions told Agence France-Presse (AFP), as France appeared to put pressure on delegates to avoid further divisive language.
The U.S.-Israeli pullout was in protest at originally proposed language in the conference's draft documents accusing Israel of "racist" practices against the Palestinians.
Israel is accused of practicing extreme policies against Palestinians in the occupied territories including invasions into Palestinian-controlled areas, demolitions, arrests and assassination policies targeting Palestinian civilians and resistance activists.
According to western figures the death toll has reached 766 since the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, started on September 28th last year. These figures include 588 Palestinians, most of them children and teenagers, and 156 Israelis.
Earlier, Arab and Islamic states called on the conference to equate Zionism with racism describing Israel a racist "state" because of its policies towards the Palestinians.
A draft declaration before 7,000 delegates at the non-governmental meeting urged the U.N. to accept that Israel was a "discriminatory state" and that Palestinians could resist "occupation by any means".
The document also demands that Israel pay "full compensation", effectively reparations, to Palestinians, described as people living under a foreign military occupying power.
"The Palestinian people are one such people currently enduring a colonialist, discriminatory military occupation that violates their fundamental human right of self-determination," the draft said.
In Washington, the White House deplored the conference in Durban as a "lost opportunity" and denounced the "intolerance" shown towards Israel here.
"This has been a lost opportunity for America and for people from around the world who are concerned about racism," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
"The language that it [the conference] has chosen to use in describing Israel is laced with intolerance," he said.
In Paris, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin warned that France and the European Union would also walk out of Durban if delegates were determined to equate Zionism with racism.
"If the final resolution continues to assimilate Zionism and racism, France and the European Union delegation will consider leaving the conference following consultations with our European partners," the premier's spokesman quoted him as saying during a cabinet meeting.
The spokesman said a decision on whether France and the EU delegation would leave the conference would be taken within hours.
The "group of five" U.N. member states is focusing on a draft text, proposed by host nation South Africa, which put forward new wording on the Arab-Israeli situation.
They have withdrawn the originally proposed language in the conference's draft documents that accused Israel of racist practices against the Palestinians.
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma drew up the new draft, now subject to negotiation by herself and delegates from Belgium, on behalf of the European Union, the Arab League, Norway and Namibia.
The European Union considered her text, which has not been made public, an "acceptable basis for negotiation", a Belgian foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday.
"After consultation with other partners, the EU believes the draft constitutes an acceptable basis for negotiation," Koen Vervaeke said.
The Middle East has dominated the U.N. World Conference Against Racism since its opening on August 31st, although discussions also focus on reparations and an apology for slavery and colonialism, gender discrimination and indigenous peoples.
A day before Jospin's comments, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson praised the European Union's participation at the U.N. conference as "very constructive".
"I believe that the EU will want the text on the Middle East and the overall text of this world conference to be appropriate to a world conference against racism. ... They will be vigilant to see that there is not language which they would consider to be inappropriate," she told reporters Tuesday.
The 15-nation bloc, which announced it would be staying in Durban and was united after the U.S.-Israeli pullout, has won the backing of the 13 EU-candidate countries for its position at the talks, a source close to the discussions told AFP.
Robinson told reporters Tuesday she believed the conference was "back on course, we're steadied", while acknowledging, with the conference due to end on Friday, that "everybody knows the time is short".
But she added: "Very often the experience in world conferences is it doesn't happen until the end of the negotiations. ... The really tough issues don't get agreed until the 11th hour.
"And I would anticipate that we probably won't put these to bed until sometime on Friday - that's normal," she told reporters.
The United States and Israel boycotted both previous U.N. racism conferences, in 1978 and 1983, also over the Middle East.
Meanwhile, in Dakar, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade suggested that Africa take an initiative on the Middle East with the aim of obtaining a ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians.
"I suggest that the Africans, led by [South African President] Thabo Mbeki propose an initiative on the Palestinian question, a sort of African Camp David [the U.S. presidential retreat where president Jimmy Carter achieved a breakthrough on the Middle East] where the two sides would be invited for discussions," Wade said in an interview with AFP.
More than 160 countries are taking part in the conference.
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