JOINT STATEMENT OF MUSLIM ORGANIZATIONS ON THE SHARON VISIT
WE PROTEST.....
New Delhi, 08 September, 2003: We protest against the visit of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel at the invitation of our Government.
» Because he has converted Israel into a terrorist sate and the occupied territories into a concentration camp.
» Because he shows no respect for the human or civil rights of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel or in the territories under its military occupation
» Because, after demolishing the Oslo Accord, based on the principle of Land for Peace, he has succeeded in blocking the progress under Road Map, through his excessive use of latest arms against an unarmed people; his intransigence on the question of Jewish settlements in Arab Palestine, his construction of security roads, watch towers and concrete walls therein, his refusal of delimitation of an internationally recognized and UN guaranteed border.
» Because he has been using brutal means of assassinations of political leaders and reprisals against civilians to suppress the Palestinian Resistance
» Because he has made a virtual hostage of Yasser Arafat, the unquestioned leader of the Palestinian people
» Because he is regarded in many countries as a War Criminal for his brutalities and atrocities in Sabira and Chatila refugee camps.
» Because he stands accused of crimes against humanity in several countries
» Because he boasts of an unverified nuclear arms stockpile in defiance of world opinion and the
IAEA?
» Because as a war monger he treats the international community, the UN, the international law and international institutions with disdain and contempt
» Because he is facing growing opposition from his own people who increasingly see their future in peace and friendship between Israel and Palestine with Jerusalem as the common capital.
We did not even murmur a protest against the establishment of diplomatic relation with Israel, against the visit of a President of Israel, against uncounted reciprocal official visits by Israeli and Indian Ministers, against expansion of commercial relations even against defence collaboration with Israel.
We protest because this invitation is immoral, as it provides symbolic support for violence and expansionism which Sharon personifies and for the Zionist objective to occupy the whole of Palestine and push out the Palestinians, even to conquer territories beyond it from the Nile to the Euphrates.
We protest against Sharon’s visit because it cannot be rationalized, except in terms of the envisaged strategic alliance between the USA, India and Israel. This official rationale i.e. cooperation against terrorism, does not wash. The Government forgets that both the USA and Israel have generated terrorism by their action in the Arab world and particularly in Palestine, while India is a victim of terrorism. There can be no meeting point between India, a Secular Democracy, and Israel, a Racist Theocracy.
We see this visit as an official seal on the reversal of India’s traditional support for the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, indeed as a slap in the face of Gandhi and
Nehru.
Syed Shahabuddin, President, A.I. Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat
Syed Nizamuddin, General Secretary, A.I. Muslim Personal Law Board
Mahmud Madani, General Secretary, Jamaat Ulama-e-Hind
Mohd. Jafar, Secretary General, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind
Asghar Imam Mahdius Salfi, Secretary General, Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith
A.W. Khilji, Dy. Secretary General, All India Milli Council
Received from:
ALL
INDIA MUSLIM MAJLIS-e-MUSHAWARAT
N-44, Abul Fazal Enclave, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi - 110 025 Phone: 2632
6780 Fax: 2632 7346 Email:
muslim@del3.vsnl.net.in
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