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Address the "Jewish Question" Without Resorting to Propaganda

(Daily Star-Lebanon) Walid Salem - * As a Palestinian who has worked in positions of responsibility for the last 31 years, including five years spent as a political prisoner, it is very difficult for me to continue as if nothing has happened when hearing a president of an Islamic state returning to the slogans of the 1960s and 1970s calling for the elimination of Israel. At that time, these were the slogans of the Arab nationalist movements (and also the Palestinian armed Marxist organizations). Today, these slogans have become Islamist political propaganda resurrected by the Iranians and different political movements that use Islam as their announced ideology. The dangers of such slogans lie not only in their role in incitement, but also in the fact that they express a lack of strategic vision. * How do we deal with the "Jewish question" in the Israeli-Palestinian and Islamic contexts? Were the rights of the Jews throughout the ages guaranteed in Arabic and Islamic countries? If the answer to this question is yes, then why did the Jews of these countries emigrate to Israel? Moreover, what have Arabs and Islamic countries done in order to maintain good relations with those Jews once they migrated to Israel? * Do Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and others of his ilk think that their propaganda helps Palestinians? Do they, on the other hand, help Israel integrate into the Middle East? Or does their attitude just help to increase those trends that call for Israel to be part of the West and to disconnect itself from Eastern culture and ties? * Do such statements help bring peace to the Middle East or more hatred and violence and the proliferation of nuclear weapons? Does Ahmadinejad hope to use these weapons to eliminate Israel? Moreover, does he realize that an Israeli response might bring about the elimination of Iran and probably other Middle Eastern countries? Why are we giving momentum to militarization and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, instead of peace? What does this say about our leaders? * Will we accept the challenge of integrating Israel into the area? Even if the creation of Israel was not our direct responsibility, it is still our overall humanitarian responsibility to find a common solution to the Jewish question rather than to react to the suffering emanating from the establishment of Israel by causing anguish for the Jewish people. These are issues that Ahmadinejad did not think of because his very blind strategy can't see the humanity of the opposing side. * Is this the tolerant Islam that all average citizens know, the Islam that recognizes the "other"? Is this the Islam that promotes equal rights for all people whatever their religion, color, sex, etc? These blind ideologies have nothing to do with Islam. They only create the opposite of what Islam stands for: they create hatred out of religious differences, thereby generating religious wars. * Moderate Muslims are called upon to raise their voices and call for a real and intensive discussion about the Jewish question and about Israel's position in the Middle East. Without such fruitful discussion, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not be resolved. The writer is director of the eastern Jerusalem office of Panorama, the Center for the Dissemination of Democracy and Community Development.
2005-11-10 00:00:00
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