مع الجالية في ألمانيا
السيدات والسادة: مساء الخير,
أنا أعلم أنكم تعبتم من الجلوس، فلذلك سوف أتحدث بشكل مختصر و أترك المجال الأكبر للحوار.
في هذا الصباح أول خبرٍ سمعته هو أن خمسين عراقياً قد قتلوا بثلاثة أحداثٍ تفجيراً بالسيارات. و قد علمتُ أن الخمسين عراقياً لم يستخدموا في الأخبار على الـBBC كلمة إرهابي. فقط استخدموا كلمة تفجير. و لم يقولوا أنهم قتلوا، و لكنهم قالوا أنهم ماتوا. ومن متابعتي للأخبار أعلم أن كلمة هجوم إرهابي تستخدم فقط حين يكون الضحايا فقط من غير العرب والمسلمين. فقط لأنهم يضعون العرب و المسلمين في خانة الإتهام و كأنهم هم فقط من يقومون بالعمليات الإرهابية.
أردت أن أبدأ من هذا المثال لأقول لحضراتكم بأنني أريد أن أتحدث عن منظور الإنسان العربي في الشرق الأوسط بما يجري الآن في منطقتنا و فهمنا لما يجري. ما يجري الآن خطيرٌ جداً ليس فقط على العرب و المسلمين و إنما على أوروبا و العالم بأسره. و أن خطورته تنبع من أمرين إثنين؛ الأول هو شبه إنهيار كامل للمرجعيات الدولية و للقانون الدولي. و الثاني هو أن القوة الوحيدة العظمى في العالم تقرأ قراءةً خاطئة تماماً لما يجري و ما يجب أن يجري في الشرق الأوسط. و كي أدلل على هذه القراءة أود أن أبدأ بما قالته كونداليزا رايس لما قالته في شهادتها أمام اللجنة التي كانت مسؤولةً عن أحداث 11 أيلول مؤخراً منذ إسبوعين.
لا أعلم كم منكم سمع شهادة كونداليزا رايس و لكنني أعلم أنه يتوجب علي أن أتحدث عما قالته و أجابت باللغة الإنكليزية لكي تكون إقتباساتي صحيحة.
For those who do not understand English my Advisor Hassana Mardam Bei will give the main meaning in Arabic.
Senator Lee Hamelton in his final question asked Dr. Rice the following question: He said to her “One of your sentences kind of your jump out in your statement, and that was when you said we must address the source of the problem??
Rice’s Answer was: we know that there is more than two million Muslims, most of them, we know, are very, very kind people. Some do not like us, they do not like modernization to come their culture, they do not like some of the policy of the United state’s government. They do not the way their own government reach them, and I’d like to elaborate them a little bit. How do we get at this problem, dislocation, if you would across the Islamic world. The Answer of Dr. Rice really horrifies me because it shows me that the advisor of the Security, the national security, of the only superpower of the world is absolutely off the board. She answered: I believe very strongly and the president believes very strongly that the Generational issue, the challenge of issue that you are addressing how to be addressed, but we are not going to see success in our watch. One of the most difficult problems in the Middle East, Rice said, is that the United States has been associated for a long time decade with the policy that looks the other way at the absent of the individual liberty in the Middle East. And I think that this is too early to make up from the population in the Middle East.
Dr. Rice spoke as if the United States has always been always illuminated in the Middle East, and as if the United States did not give the support from any Arab country in nineteen ninety one in the war to elaborate Kuwait and against the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. And she hasn’t mentioned at all any thing that is crucial to the problem in the Middle East. She started speaking about curricular at schools and universities, and she ended her saying that we need to change the nature of the Middle East. And she said that the challenge is Iraq, if we succeed in Iraq we shall be going to change the nature of the Middle East.
Some one who believes that our nature is not in need to be changed at all I shall really horrifies me. Dr. Rice did not speak at all about the Arab – Israeli conflict nor about the occupation of our territories, nor about the occupation of Iraq. There was only one problem is that those people in the Middle East are not civilized and we have to civilize them. That was really her message.
I think that was an indication of much more larger problem. The larger problem is that the war against terrorism as it was is being used as a pre-thing to do more dangerous things to all of us including the Americans. Since nine eleven we felt a huge change in attitude, in language, in policies from the United States towards the Middle East.
Now, the March 11 in Madrid was also equally horrible to us, because they wanted also to bring the battle to Europe to strike the core of the multi-culturalism in Europe.
So, how do we see things as indigenous people in the Middle East, and I see the word indigenous is important because we have many things done against the indigenous people in the world. I always go against this kind of stereotype and against the speak out the stressing issues.
After nine eleven and after March eleven what is happened to Arab people and to Muslim people is that it’s turned the Islamic terrorism in order to connect terrorism with Islam. And I was hopping when Lee Hamelton asking Rice about the two billion that she will say some thing to show her respect either to Islam or people, and to speak against terrorism and terrorists, whether they are Muslims, Christians or Jews, and to speak against criminal state of mind, but not to implicate culture or religion or entire people.
It’s probably by chance that the day that Dr. Rice gave her speech I was visiting Bosra theater near Damascus. And the lady who was explaining to us the history of the antique theater explained that when Muslims came and wanted to build again the antique theater twenty centuries ago they looked for the stones that is compose to the same nature, to the same colour, so they continued building the antique theater without putting stones that may harm the eyes of those who see the antique theater again. I think that is some thing we have to be proud of. We are so sensitive to civilization, to culture.
What is happening in Naplus and the West Bank now is the best archeology, the best history is totally destroyed by bulldozers.
What is happening in the Middle East now is that the Arab people are being prevented from processing any argument to defend themselves, to deliberate their lands. And the procession of any argument is an enough reason to accuse them of being terrorist. While the other side is using all arms in the world in order to kill and destroy and occupy.
The other problem is that, the only superpower in the world is speaking about the Middle East as if there were no people, as if it is empty of people. They want to bring democracy and to bring curricular. And, you know, we have millions of people who have PhDs. and Doctors degrees and great professionals. We feel absolutely insulted by a country deals us as if we were not exist. The only people who are not unterrorists by the Americans now are people who are either self-haters, or those who support the United States or those who do not see strongly their culture and civilizations.
You know, I started to deal weather the United States wants to feed the circle of terrorism. This makes terrorists too much stronger than they were three years ago. There is no doubt that there are terrorists and criminals, but we fight them now and we always fought them. We always stand against terrorism. But we have to stand all together Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Europeans Americans against terrorism, and not to give the impression that some people support and some people are against terrorism.
The conflict in the Middle East is not a religious conflict. In fact the conflict in the Middle East is an exemplary example of the multi ethnities and religions that we all live in the Middle East in concord. In fact, we don’t even like the word tolerant, because we love each other, and we love being together, we love living together all Muslims, Christians and Jews. We love the texture of our society that is made of all ethnities, of all religions.
The eldest temple in the world is in Damascus, and the eldest stone church in the world is near Aleppo. And in the Umayyad in Damascus in the sixth century Christians and Muslims were going to the same place, it was not just a mosque, the Muslims would go to the left and the Christians would go the right and they always worshipped the same God.
My eldest daughter who is in the fourth year university student came to me two weeks ago and she said to me “Mam, what is our religion??!” because I hate people talking about religions, because it doesn’t a matter, you know, we believe in God and that is the matter, she said that because now we hear the United States saying Sunnis, Shiites in Iraq, so she asked me what is our religion. This is a very terrible logic the Unites States brings to our region.
The one question that no one will ask you in Syria is “what is your religion??”. This is the ultimate impolite question in my country, and I am very proud to say that.
So, what is this all about in the Middle East?? What is the conflict about in the Middle East?? In our opinion, it is about land in Palestine. This is the thing Sharon wants. He wants to occupy the land and to keep it, and to bring settlers from all the world, and either kill the Palestinians or transfer them, and to build the wall. I do not know how could the democracy, the consistent of the religious state that only bear one religion, I do not know.
Could you imagine for a moment any Arab country doing what Israel is doing, killing people with missile, targeting any one with missile what will happen??! They have a quite excuse to defend the country, because their country is being occupied. They will be against International Law and against Geneva conventional and against moralities in the world.
I do not understand how could the United States use the Vito in order not to condemn the killing of Sheikh Yassin. And till now the United States did not condemned any killing of any Palestinian child, of any Palestinian woman, of any Palestinian man, and it condemned the killing of every Israeli child, man and woman which makes me feel that Arab life doesn’t equal the Israeli life.
Until now, seven hundred, Palestinian children, were killed. Fifteen thousand Palestinian houses were destroyed. Three hundred thousands olive trees were aborted, and no body raises voice against what is happening in Palestine, in Iraq.
I want every and each one of you to believe for a moment that you are going home and see your apartment destroyed. I moved to a new apartment a year ago, I still disoriented although I have hot water and I have my office, but I still disoriented. I do know where my papers are, where my pens are, I still related to my old flat.
Can you imagine the hundreds of thousands of the Palestinian people who are living as a refugees under tents in their home, in their own territories and they are not allowed to live as decent human beings. That is what is happening in Palestine.
My fear now is that there is going to be warrior against Muslims and Arabs in Europe, because with the theory of the pre-emptive attack of being arrested on intentions of being doing something is a very dangerous theory and a very dangerous logic for all of us.
I believe the only way is to reverse this policy, and to fight for the return of the International order with the International terms of reference with the International Law.
For that we need, Christians, Muslims and Jews to work together. We need to stand together against terrorists, criminals and any one who supports them directly or indirectly. There are some Jews who stand against the policy, the criminal policy, of Sharon. The only demonstration that went against Sharon in front of the White House during his visit there was a Jews demonstration. And many Jews are standing in check points with Palestinian women supporting them against the policy of humiliation of women, men and children.
Today Anounou, the Jewish nuclear scientists who spent in the prison eighteen years, he said: just give me hold that this world will move on against all these distortions and crimes that are happening. Just because he is saying the truth he was in prison for eighteen years, and just he stands against what is not right. And I said in another place I think as people we have always to say the truth even if we have to pay the price because truth is always very important not just for us, but for future generations in the world.
I would like to invite you to suspect any thing really in the media that is going against the logic and against what you think is right because the problem with media nowadays is that media are really put in the way that is full of distortions, unfortunately.
If I brought the front pages of the Arab newspapers last week, and you bring the front pages of any American newspapers for the last week, about the Middle East, you would think that you’re speaking about two different matters, they are unrelated. And I feel for the American woman who is the mother of a marine who killed in Iraq and president Bush wants to see her and says to her we have to stay the course in order to win. She said this was too late for me because I lost my son.
Thousands of human causalities are being done daily in the Middle East because of this policy. And therefore it is really our work to all of us in the world to do whatever we can in order to reactive, to reverse this policy, to return this policy in the Middle East into a policy that calls for peace, that calls for dignity, that calls for co-existence, that calls for prosperity of all people without speaking about religions and ethnities.
I would like to stress that “DIGNITY” is a key word. Many politicians were speaking about the exact meaning of what Sharon and Bush said about the right of Palestinians. There are interpretations and counter interpretations. But the real fact is that: first, the United States as a superpower talked about the fate of the Palestinians without any Palestinian being there. They decided the fate of the Palestinians without any Palestinian being there. And they started policy of considering settlements as an obstacle for peace. And negate the right of the Palestinians to go back home, and they said to a new Palestine that might be any where but not to Israel.
There is no doubt that the Arab world suffers from many problems. We are not speaking as one voice as Arabs. We disagreeing with almost every issue. We are not effective in the Western media. We do not follow up and speak to the western decision – makers in the west as it should. And we are really in a very law stage of our history. But this doesn’t mean that our future generations will not organize themselves, and will not work hard in order to gain their rights.
What this current policy is doing, the latest Bush-Sharon is doing, is to prolong the conflict in the Middle East. What we want to do is to negotiate the settlements in the Middle East, peaceful, just, enduring settlements in the Middle East.
Linking the war on terrorism with the Arab – Israeli conflict is the most dangerous thing that is happening to our world in the last three years. What we have to do really is to think very differently. If I were an Israeli I would be very angry with my government because they don’t reach the settlement in that historic opportunity with the Arab.
What is happening, I think, is very dangerous to the Arabs, Israelis, Europeans and probably to the entire world. I feel at this age of misinformation, really, that we need to have much better dialogue, we need to have much better communication, much human relations in order to arrive at the right decision, at the right moment that peace can be saved, lives can be saved and security can be achieved for all not just for one side.
Two tactics, hopefully, will be aware of in the future: the distortion of the image of Arabs and Muslims everywhere and the pretest of anti-Semiticism of any criticism of Sharon’s policy. We are all Semites any way, and we are proud of being Semites. So that accusation is not applied to us at all. But the criticism of any crime should not be taken with being anti-Semitist, there is a lot of confusion at this moment in order to justify the wrong policy that is being applied on our region.
I would like to conclude by saying that your societies, your associations, the German-Syrian associations, is an exemplary example of the world that we all need to do in order to understand each other better, to understand the culture, to appreciate each other, to appreciate each other’s culture and to speak to each other in a dignified way. And only then the whale terrorists will be disarmed in the world.
I would like to thank all of you for all the work you were doing, and to say that I am honest and very happy to be with you this evening, and I will support every thing you do for better German-Syrian relations and to European-Syrian relations.
سؤال: لقد قلتم أنكم فخورون بما يقومون به الإسرائيليون بتظاهرهم ضد سياسات شارون، لكن أين هم العرب؟؟ أين هو الشارع العربي.
جواب: أعتقد أنني قلت أن العرب يعانون من مشاكل كثيرة، و أنهم في وضع، ربما إحدى الأساطير التي يجب أن نحاربها على المستوى العربي هو ما أقنعتهم الصهيونية به هو أنهم لا يستطيعون فعل أي شيء خاصةً في الولايات المتحدة و أوروبا. و أن هذا المجال هو حكر على الصهاينة الذين يتقنون فنّ التخاطب مع الغرب. و أعتقد أننا علينا أن نعمل جاهدين لإقناع العرب أنهم يستطيعون أن يفعلوا الكثير على الساحة الدولية.
سؤال: لقد تأثرت كثيراً بما قلتموه، إذا ذكرت ما قالته رايس أنها تريد تغيير طبيعة المنطقة، لربما هي لا تريد تغيير البشر هناك و إنما تريد تغيير الحكومات، لربما هذا هو المعنى.
Answer: she said I want to change the nature of the Middle East, and I think this is very clear. Of course they succeeded in changing the government of Iraq, but they kept saying “if we succeed in changing the nature of Iraq”. They spoke about curricular and they spoke about education, and they spoke about women, they want to change the nature of the Middle East. And even governments, I think, people of the region can take care of this. So I think they want to change the nature of the Middle East.
سؤال: الحقيقة التي لمستها هنا هي أن السيدة الوزيرة تحدثت عن ضرورة بذل جهود مشتركة مع اليهود و المسلمين و المسيحيين، في المنطقة، لربما هذا الحديث يدور هنا في هذه الغرفة فقط و لو فكر العالم العربي كله مثلما تفكرون لحصل السلام فوراً.
Answer: what I said in this room was said anywhere in the Arab world, so no problem. I said that because I believe the conflict is not a religious conflict, and I do not believe, really, that it is not because of the Arabs that peace is not happening. In Syria, we have been calling for months, for years, for the consumption of negotiations on the basis of Madrid terms of reference, for the terms of the Security Counsel Resolutions, but it is really that Sharon who doesn’t want the peace at all despite the fact that Bush made him “the man of peace” in spite of all his destructions and killings.
سؤال: الشيء الذي أود أن أقوله هو أوقفوا قتل أطفالكم، الأطفال هم مستقبل كل بلد. أتركوا الآخرين يعيشون تعيشون أنتم أيضاً.
Answer: I really do not know what you are speaking about.
سؤال: سيادة الوزيرة، ما تفضّلت به منطقي جداً و مقبول جداً فأتمنى أن تشتركي مع ناس يشاطرونك هذه الأفكار مع أناس أوربيون، إسرائيليون أو أمركيون و أن تظهروا مع بعض بجهود مشتركة.
Answer: Jews, Christians and Muslims, Europeans, Arabs and Americans are trying our best but the problem is that at the end of the day things are doubtful for us, that is the problem
