[Mb-civic] 115 Non-Aligned Nations Urge Sanctions Against Israel

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sent by Dave Muller (southnews)

Palestine Media Center (PMC) - August 22, 2004

115 Non-Aligned Nations Urge Sanctions Against Israel
Durban Declaration Avoids US Veto, Condemns Arafat's Siege

The 115-member developing states of the Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM), meeting in South Africa at the weekend, has condemned
Israels Apartheid Wall, saying it infringes Palestinians rights, and
urged all of its members to act individually or collectively to impose
sanctions both against Israeli settlements and international companies
that participate in settlement activity, including construction of the
Wall.

At least eighty foreign ministers attending a Non-Aligned Movement
meeting in Durban, South Africa, on Thursday unanimously passed the
Durban declaration pressing for a peaceful, political settlement
of the conflict between Palestinians and Israel.

The ministers called on the (UN) Security Council to fulfill its
responsibilities by adopting a clear resolution and undertaking
necessary measures to stop Israel from constructing its Apartheid
Wall on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, said the
declaration.

South Africa hosted the14 th Ministerial Conference of NAM, a
mid-term review between the last heads of state and governments
summit in Malaysia last year and the next in Cuba in 2006 .

The Durban meeting endorsed the recent International Court of Justice
(ICJ) advisory decision against Israels building of its Apartheid Wall.

In the following days, the Non-Aligned Movement will be calling on
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to expedite the register of damages
caused by the construction of the Wall, and will be convening a
further conference to consider how member states can build a broad
coalition together to work towards a peaceful resolution of the
entire Middle East situation.

The NAM foreign ministers reaffirmed the need for an early convening
of a special meeting of regional and international groupings aimed
at building a broad partnership for achieving a peaceful solution
to the long-running conflict, further mobilizing the international
community in support of the two-State solution, based on the pre-
1967borders and on international law, the declaration said.

The conference noted Israels negative reaction to the ICJs decision
that the Wall was a breach of international law, and called on
member states to take measures collectively, regionally and
individually to prevent any products of illegal Israeli settlements
from entering their markets.

In a final document, NAM wanted the United Nations Security
Council to adopt a resolution chastising Israel and to take other
measures to force Israel to stop building the600 -kilometer Wall.

The group also urged the Security Council to establish a register
of damages caused by the Wall and then require Israel to pay
reparations.

With regard to member states, the ministers called upon them to
undertake measures ... to prevent any products of illegal Israeli
settlements from entering their markets, the declaration said.

It also called on them to decline entry to Israeli settlers and to
impose sanctions against companies and entities involved in the
construction of the wall and other illegal activities in the occupied
Palestinian territory.

In the declaration, the ministers also urged Israel to respect and
abide by the ICJ ruling.

Such respect and compliance would positively influence efforts for
achieving a peaceful, political settlement of the conflict based
on international law, the NAM foreign ministers said.

Arafats Siege Denounced

The declaration also condemned the virtual imprisonment to which
Israel has subjected Palestinian President Yaser Arafat for the
past two and a half years, and denounced in strong terms what it
said were repeated threats against his life.

Arafat, in a message to a gathering of the Non-Aligned Movement in
Durban, appealed for a ceasefire with Israel and reconfirmed the
Palestinian Leaderships commitment to peace as a strategic option
and to a negotiated settlement of the conflict with the Jewish state.

In 2002 , South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Zuma led a
Non-Aligned Movement delegation to meet with Arafat in an
expression of solidarity with the people of Palestine. The
accompanying Department of Foreign Affairs release declared:

The NAM delegation reiterated the movements outrage at the
intensification of the illegal Israeli occupation, the killing,
vast destruction, the economic strangulation and other atrocities
committed against Palestine and its people.

Israel condemned NAM as the diplomatic rear guard for the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO).

The Non-Aligned Movement is the PLOs diplomatic rear guard at the
UN, and the reservoir from which the bulk of the automatic majority
against Israel comes, an Israeli diplomat told Haaretz. The
Palestinians always recruit the non-aligned countries to adopt
resolutions and instructions that later become the basis for
anti-Israel initiatives in the General Assembly.

The non-aligned countries with which Israel maintains close relations are
India, Thailand, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Cyprus, Kenya, Angola,
Cameroon, South Africa, Seychelles and the Philippines.

NAM Declaration Avoids US Veto

Speaking as observer at the conference, the Palestinian ambassador
to the United Nations Dr. Nasser Al Kidwa said that the beauty of
the proposals is that they do not have to go through the UN Security
Council, and face a possible United States veto.

In October 2003 , the United States vetoed a draft UN Security
Council resolution condemning Israel for building its Apartheid Wall.
After the setback, the Palestinians turned to the General Assembly.

The assembly passed a resolution denouncing Israel in last October
and then asked the ICJ in last December to rule whether the Wall
is illegal.

The Hague-based ICJ ruled on July that, the construction of the
wall being built by Israel, the occupying power, in the occupied
Palestinian Territory, including in and around east Jerusalem, and
its associated regime, is contrary to international law."

At the request of NAM and Arab nations, the UN General Assembly
held an emergency special session on July 16 to examine the world
courts ruling and finally adopted a resolution to demand that Israel
comply with the ICJ advisory opinion.

Al-Kidwa said he was delighted by the movements support, saying
Israel had virtually colonized the Palestinians.

Our right to self-determination must not be conditional to anything,
it is a basic human right, he said.

At least 16 of the NAM members held a meeting of the special
committee on Palestine on Wednesday to consider further action after
the ICJs ruling.

They prepared a document that was handed on Wednesday to the
movements Committee on Palestine, which is chaired by Malaysia and
includes, Algeria, Bangladesh, Colombia, Cuba, India, Indonesia,
Senegal, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Benin, Chile,
Pakistan, the Philippines and the Palestinians.

PLOs chief of the foreign affairs Farouq Al-Kaddoumi told reporters
that the Palestinian state wanted the movement to seek international
sanctions against Israel to pressure it to accept the decision of
the ICJ.

Al-Kaddoumi was backed separately by Egypt, which said in a
statement in Durban: Egypt calls upon the United Nations...to consider
what further action is required to end the illegal situation resulting
from the construction of the wall, taking into account the present
advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice.

Egypt calls upon the member states to ensure cessation of the
construction of the wall and not to render any assistance to its
construction nor recognize any situation created by or as a
consequence of the construction, the statement said.

NAM, the largest political grouping outside the United Nations,
mainly consisting of developing countries, originated in the 1955
meeting of 29 Asian and African countries, at which heads of state
discussed issues of common concern including colonialism and the
influence of the West.

The principles of the movement, including respect for the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of all nations, and settlement of all international
disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the United Nations Charter,
remain valid more than 40 years later.

The archives of South News can be found at
http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/

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UN official: Apartheid in territories worse than S. Africa

By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent

Tue., August 24

South African law professor John Dugard, the special rapporteur for
the United Nations on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories, has written in a report to the UN General Assembly that there
is "an apartheid regime" in the territories "worse than the one that
existed in South Africa."

As an example, Dugard points to the roads only open to settlers, from
which Palestinians are banned.

In his report, presented early this month, Dugard is highly critical of
Israel for its "continuing violations of human rights in the territories."
He said Israel is blatantly violating the International Court of Justice's
ruling on the separation fence, and has declared it will not obey it.

The report was disseminated among the member countries ahead of
the September General Assembly session meant to discuss the fence.

Dugard was a member of a Truth Commission at the end of the
apartheid regime, and was appointed by the UN in 2001 as special
rapporteur for human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

He called for a general arms embargo against Israel in May, in response to
the IDF operations in Rafah, similar to the arms embargo imposed on South
Africa in 1977.

According to government sources in Jerusalem, Israel is currently
leaning toward cooperating with the various rapporteurs of the UN,
and responding to their questions and requests.

But there are two exceptions to that rule: Dugard, and the special
rapporteur for food, Jean Zigler. Israel refuses to cooperate with them
because of the language of their mandates, and what it regards as their
unfair approach. According to the sources, Dugard's assignment was phrased
in a way that discriminates against Israel.

But the government does not prevent Dugard from traveling in the
territories and Israel, to meet people and to report as he wishes.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/468744.html


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