Giscard Stresses Palestinians' 'Right to
a home'
PARIS – French President Valery Giscard
d’Estaing said here on Tuesday night that France believes
in the necessity of a global agreement in the Middle East
which would preserve the legitimate rights of "all
concerned and especially the right of the Palestinian people
to a homeland of their own".
The French President, who was addressing a
banquet in honour of the ruler of Qatar, Sheikh Khalifa,
praised the recently concluded Israeli-Egyptian disengagement
agreement as "having safeguarded the chances for a
peaceful solution in the Middle East", but stressed:
"it is only a step towards a global agreement which
is indispensable and urgent".
M.E. solution must be global
To the Editor of The Jerusalem Post
Sir,
In his address at the recent banquet for Sheikh
Khalifa of Qatar, French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing
expressed the belief that the Middle East must have a global
agreement. Allow me to applaud this verdict of vision ,
these words of wisdom, which point to the right path for
peace in the Middle East.
I am an Iraqi Jew who managed to escape from
the country in 1964 just before the official wave of terror
descended on our community and culminated in the public
hanging in Baghdad’s main square of nine innocent Jews.
My 90 year old parents left in 1973 after their property
was sequestrated. Our family had lived in Iraq for over
2500 years. We belong to more than one million displaced
Jews from Arab countries who did not take to the gun but,
dispersed all over the world, are trying to pick up the
threads quietly and with dignity.
The solution must be global for there can
be no peace in one corner of the Middle East while the Lebanese
Christians are faced with a life-and-death struggle; while
6 milion Kurds cannot attain autonomy; while the Armenians
and Assyrians remember their massacres and their stolen
lands; while the Shia majority in Iraq are oppressed; while
the Arabs control 5 million square miles of territory. These
are not isolated problems and must be solved together..
The solution must be global for there can
be no peace in the Middle East while a few Arab leaders
pocket most of the oil wealth and Jews have to keep tightening
their belts; while the Arabs clamour for a return to Palestine
(although the bridges are open) but have barred Jews from
entering some Arab countries on pain of death.
The solution must be global, for peace, law
and order in the Middle East are indivisable. To the PLO
who say they want to establish a free, multi-racial, democratic,
secular and progressive Palestine, we say we want to establish
a free, multi-racial, democratic, secular and progressive
Middle East. To those who say that Zionism is responsible
for all the trouble in Palestine, we say that Arab imperialism
is responsible for all the trouble in the Middle East.
N E Dangoor
Appeared in the Jerusalem Post, 2 December
1975
**
Following is the full text of the letter to
President Giscard d’Estaing.
H.E. President Valery Giscard d’Estaing,
Paris
November 5 1975
Your Excellency
In your address at the banquet for Sheikh
Khalifa of Qatar last week you expressed the belief that
the Middle East must have a global agreement.
Allow me to applaud you, Mr President, for
this verdict of vision, these words of wisdom, which point
to the right path for peace in the Middle East.
I am an Iraqi Jew who managed to escape from
that country in 1964 just before the official wave of terror
descended on our community and culminated In the public
hanging in Baghdad’s main square of nine innocent Jews
while President Bakr went there with a brass-band to celebrate
the occasion and the populace were invited to have a picnic
around the dangling corpses marked "JEW". My 90-year
old parents left in 1973 after their property was sequestrated.
Our family had lived in Iraq for over 2500 years. We belong
to more than one million displaced Jews from Arab countries
who did not take to the gun but dispersed all over the world,
are trying to pick up the threads quietly and with dignity.
The solution must be global for there can
be no peace for the Palestinian refugees while the rights,
material and political of the Jewish refugees are ignored.
The solution must be global for there can
be no peace In one corner of the Middle East while the Lebanese
Christians are faced with a life-and-death struggle; while
6 million Kurds cannot attain autonomy; while the Armenians
and Assyrians remember their massacres and their stolen
lands; while the Shia majority in Iraq are oppressed; while
the Arabs control 5 million square miles of territory and
non-Arabs are denied any territory. These are not isolated
problems and must be solved together.
The solution must be global for there can
be no peace in the Middle East while a few Arab leaders
pocket most of the oil wealth and Jews have to keep tightening
their belts; while the Arabs clamour for a return to Palestine
(although the bridges are open) but have barred Jews from
entering some Arab countries on pain of death.
The solution must be global, for peace, law and order in
the Middle East are indivisible. Moreover, the conflict
between the Arabs and Israel is not equal: for while the
Arabs are striving to gain control of Palestine, we Jews
are struggling for a more basic and elementary claim; the
right to exist in the Middle East, a right not denied to
the Arabs.
To the PLO who say they want to establish
a free multi-racial, democratic, secular and progressive
Palestine, we say we want to establish, a free, multi-racial,
democratic. secular and progressive Middle East. To those
who say that Zionism Is responsible for all the trouble
in Palestine, we say that Arab imperialism is responsible
for all the trouble in the Middle East.
Being the cradle of civilisation and the crossroads
of three continents, the Middle East contains many ancient
nationalities and thus it Is fragmented into small vulnerable
units. As such It always attracted aggression from within
or without. Yesterday Ottoman power dominated the scene;
today Arab nationalism Is trying to assert itself; tomorrow
It can be Persia that will dominate the Middle East as:
of years In the past. The fact is that the various communities
of the Middle East were never united in freedom and thls
Is the only way to ensure lasting peace In the area –
a federatlon or confederation covering Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,
Israel, Jordan, Kuwait (and Cyprus) comprising 6 million
Shia, 6 million Sunna, 6 million Kurds, 3 Million Christians
(Greek, Maronites, Armenians, Assyrians), 3 million Jews
as well as a score of other groups (Yezidls, Druse, Alawis,
Turkomen, Bahais, etc.).
The upheavals of the Middle East over the
years were responsible for driving the better section of
the population out of the region and this process is still
continuing. With the establishment of a stable and peaceful
regime In the Middle East, most of these diasporas would
tend to return and thus transform the picture of that part
of the world. It is unfortunate that today in matters concerning
the Arabs expediency often takes priority over principles.
But anyone who sacrifices principles for material benefits
in the end loses the principles and the material benefits.
La France, depositary of the human conscience,
can under your wise guidance, lead world opinion to demand
and implement a global agreement for the Middle East which
will earn the gratitude of this and future generations.
Yours respectfully
N E Dangoor
**
PRÉSIDENCE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE
Paris
Monsieur, N E Dangoor – London
Monsieur
Votre lettre est bien parvenue à Monsieur
le Président de la République. C’est
avec toute l’attention nécessaire qu’il
en a été pris connaissance.
Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l’assurance
de mes sentiments distingués.
Philippe SAUZAY
Le Chef de Cabinet
8 December 1975
If
you would like to make any comments or contribute to The
Scribe please contact
us.
