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By Hisham Aluoani
BEIRUT (Islam Online) - A large number of political parties from throughout the Arab world gathered in Lebanon to reject the idea of Israel's participation in an economic conference to be held in Egypt this March. The 67 parties met in the Second Annual Conference of Arab Parties held from 22-24 November in Beirut. The final statement described the proposed fifth Middle East/ North Africa Economic Conference as an "American-Zionist project giving Israel the upper hand in the Arab region." The parties came from Jordan, Tunis, Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania and Yemen. The parties condemned the "Middle East-ization" of the Arab world, where the term "Arab world" is being shunned for the term "Middle East," which would include Israel. Lebanese President Salim Hoss, who has been stepping up his antagonism of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat recently, sponsored the conference. In its final statement, the parties - all of which oppose the Oslo accords signed between Arafat's regime and Israel - said that "the conflict with the Zionist entity will not end with the mere signing of agreements. The nation has the right to resist Zionist occupation." The conference asked all Muslim countries, especially Egypt and Jordan, to "stop all forms of normalization" of relations with Israel. Egypt wants the economic conference to revive open Arab-Israeli cooperation, which hit a peak after the signing of the Oslo agreement in 1993 but then dipped after the election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996. The conference was first held in 1994 in Casablanca, Morocco; 1995 in Amman, Jordan; 1996 in Cairo, Egypt; and Doha, Qatar in 1997. The First Conference of Arab Parties was held in Jordan from 16 to 18 December at the initiative of the former head of the Jordanian Parliament, Suleiman Arrar.
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