A member of the nascent ”Arab Council for Regional Integration”, Mostafa El-Dessouki, who edits the pan-Arab magazine Al-Majalla, believes that successive boycotts of Israel and its people ‘’have only strengthened both while doing great harm to Arab countries and the Palestinians themselves.’’
Saleh Ahmed, who leads a non-governmental civil society group in Lebanon, told the gathering that that “we do not deny the rights of the Jews to have a country because they are a nation. They have their religion, language, culture, art and heritage.”
LONDON—Some 30 Arab civil society personalities from 15 Arab countries have publicly called for a repudiation of the boycott of Israel and for direct civil relations between Israeli citizens and their respective societies.
The call was made in a joint statement during a two-day conference Tuesday and Wednesday in a London hotel which culminated with the creation of the “Arab Council for Regional Integration” that articulates a broader agenda of reconciliation among rival sects, ethnicities, and nationalities both within and across all of the region’s borders.
In a statement the 30 members said the nascent Arab Council is pursuing two goals: start a new pan-Arab debate about the case for people-to-people relations between Arabs and Israelis and across the gamut of identity-based divides in the Middle East and North Africa and launch a series of programs within the region that proactively build such relations through productive partnership.
‘’We repudiate the culture of exclusion and demonization that has wreaked havoc across the Arab world and espouse a spirit of partnership that knows no borders. We aim to rescue the region from the consequences of a policy, dating back generations, that continues to do only harm,’’ said Eglal Gheita, an Egyptian-British lawyer who is among the founding members of the Arab Council for Regional Integration.
Another member of the Council, Mostafa El-Dessouki, who edits the pan-Arab magazine Al-Majalla, believes that successive boycotts of Israel and its people ‘’have only strengthened both while doing great harm to Arab countries and the Palestinians themselves.’’
‘’The boycott failed to defeat Israelis, instead inspiring innovative responses that invigorated their economy and society,’’ he added, noting that the boycott lost Arabs the benefits of partnership with Israelis.
‘’To rebuild the region, we must break with this tragic history. Since the war against Israel’s legitimacy developed through Arabic mass media and political pressure, we must challenge it, in the same outlets, with honesty about Israel and constructive ideas about our shared future,’’ said El-Dessouki.
Other members of the Arab Council who braved significant risk in making their joint statement included figures from Algeria, Egypt, Bahrein, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Saleh Ahmed, who leads a non-governmental civil society group in Lebanon, told the gathering at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel that that “we do not deny the rights of the Jews to have a country because they are a nation. They have their religion, language, culture, art and heritage.”
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair praised the creation of the new ”Arab Council for Regional Integration’’ in a message delivered to the London meeting. “Integrating Israel in the region will benefit all parties and not only Israel. Far from distancing peace, it will bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians, in my judgment, closer,” said the former Middle East envoy.