BRIEFING BY FOREIGN MINISTER SHIMON PERES
& DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER MICHAEL MELCHIOR TO THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS

Tel-Aviv, September 4, 2001

Foreign Minister Peres: Thank you for coming at such short
notice. The conference in Durban is not yet over, and we are
facing an extremely difficult situation. Over the last 24 hours
we have had five bombs in Jerusalem, including one today, and
then another "bomb" in Durban - not made of explosives, but made
of hatred, of extreme anti-Israeli expressions, and I think the
two of them can damage very much the very difficult attempt to
renew the peace talks and to bring about a cease-fire.

I want to say a few words about the conference, but before it I
would like to thank at least 43 countries that have expressed
themselves in Durban against the very extreme proposals of the
Arab blocs. Many of them belong to the so-called non-aligned
nations, and we really are very grateful for the position taken
by them - 43 expressed themselves; if it had come to a vote, it
would have been even more than that.

We are facing two organized blocs: the Arab League and the Muslim
League.

The Arab League is made up of 24 countries, 30 nations - totally
anti-Israeli, totally against peace, for the renewal of the
boycott, for the continuation of the intifada, for the cutting of
relations with Israel, and no reason nor justice nor activity can
change their position.

Unfortunately, there is another bloc, the Muslim League, which
comprises 60 countries, over a billion people, and there, too,
the position is basically anti-Israeli, not necessarily
pro-peace, extremely biased, on many occasions ignorant about
what is taking place here. May I say that among all those Muslim
countries and Arab countries, I can hardly recognize a real
democracy, a full democracy. In many of them there is neither
peace nor civil rights, nor really an understanding of the
conflict which is taking place in our country, in our region.

The subject of the conference was supposed to be human rights. It
could have been an important conference. Instead it became a
farce.

When we are talking about human rights, the first human right is
to alive, because if you kill somebody, the rest of human rights
are irrelevant and unimportant. For 53 years, Israel was forced
to exercise the right to remain alive. We were attacked five
times, with an attempt to overpower us, to destroy us. In between
there were acts of terror, of violence, of killing against
Israelis, against Jews, here and abroad - and they did it while
describing themselves as the victims.

Israel never set out to occupy a piece of land from anybody. Our
map is a result of self-defense, not a condition. And after we
won the land, that we didn't intend at all to win, we returned it
- we returned the land and the water to Egypt, to Jordan; we
withdrew from Lebanon. We offered the Syrians a complete return
of the Golan Heights. It's supposed to be "land for peace" - we
gave back all the land, I'm not sure we got back all the peace,
to be truthful.

And, for the first time, we offered the Palestinians an
independent state on most of the territories - actually, in Camp
David, all of the territories. I don't know any example in
history that a people outgunned and outnumbered, which was forced
to fight on so many occasions and won militarily, and yet never
was tempted to take over a land, a nation. Never.

Now, to describe us as colonial? Why? Because their attempts to
overpower us were not successful? To describe us as people who
are thirsty for land, when we gave back all the land? To describe
us as racist? Is there any law or any attempt in this land to
which you are ambassadors, to segregate because of color, because
of race, because of ethnic belonging? It goes against everything
that we stand for. The Jewish people themselves have all the
colors, from black to blond, and we come from many ethnic groups.
If there is a land and a nation that is really trying to
introduce equality and fairness in a very troubled history, after
an extremely difficult period in our own history before it, with
the Holocaust - to describe us as racist is a bluff, is a lie, is
a shame.

We are not going to take lessons about democracy or equality or
human rights from anybody else after the torture, the suffering,
that we went through. It makes injustice a joke. It turns human
rights into an occasion to win points to justify the continuation
of throwing bombs and using violence, and trying to boycott us,
and trying to forget everything we were doing and why we were
doing it.

I know that South Africa itself wanted very much to make a
conference of dignity, of hope, of truth. But unfortunately, the
two blocs, which are so prejudiced, made it impossible and
created a show of injustice and of loss of hope.

To continue violence and accuse us of using force, to declare
boycotts against us and discrimination against, and accuse us of
being discriminative is a shame.

We asked you to come because many of your countries are still in
Durban, and I really want to say, with all seriousness, that
every responsible country, every responsible person, should stop
this from happening - not to submit to an Arab bloc, to a Muslim
bloc which is blind and would not listen to any call of our side.

We know that we can be outnumbered and outvoted, but this will
not change us. We don't feel that we were defeated; human rights
were defeated. We don't think it's a setback for Israel; we think
it's a setback for peace. We don't think that this is a court of
justice; it is a court of mockery of justice. And it's a pity,
because the world needs a respectful, objective, honest United
Nations, where the suffering of all people is addressed equally,
and where peace is a noble target, and where truth is the only
way to achieve it.

We shall appreciate it if every country that you represent will
do everything in the remaining days to stop it from happening. I
say it not only on behalf of Israel, I think I express the views
of many people in the free world, the wishes of many people who
seek peace.

Despite what I have said, we shall try to continue our efforts to
achieve a cease-fire, so that we shall be able to implement the
Mitchell Report and the Tenet Document. I'm not sure that this
will happen, that the meeting with Arafat will take place this
weekend. The preparations are going on, and we would like to
allow a meeting in a more isolated place, without so many
television cameras and tens of journalists.

But we didn't change our mind. We shall do whatever is needed to
defend our lives, and we shall do whatever is possible to bring
peace to our neighborhood.

Thank you.

Deputy Foreign Minister Melchior: We met some weeks ago and we
talked about our fears for the conference in Durban. We decided
to go for two reasons: first of all, because Israel, as also the
Jewish people, has to stand in front where the fight is the fight
against racism. Nobody of the Jewish people, after 2,500 of
knowing persecution, can witness what this persecution can lead
to of the ultimate crimes. Therefore, we have to be in the front
everywhere, where the issue of racism is on the table, to fight
any kind of racism - against Jews, against blacks, against
anybody. That is one reason why we wanted to be in Durban and why
we went.

The second reason was that we were very much urged by our friends
all over the world, from South Africa, from Europe and many
others, that we have to be there and fight this out, although we
knew that the hate language that stemmed from Teheran would be on
the table when the delegates arrived in Durban.

I must say to you that this document which is on the table now in
Durban is the most anti-Semitic official document put on any
table in any official conference since World War II. It is not
only anti-Semitic, but it is also anti-semantic. It takes the
vocabulary, the worst words which are known in the dictionary of
humankind - racism, apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing - it
takes this vocabulary and, in an anti-semantic act, turns these
absolute evils, which we all have to fight, because we have
racism in all societies, and it takes them and makes a mockery of
them. It empties them of any moral value - because if everything
is racism, if everything is genocide, then nothing is racism and
genocide.

All fascist movements since the Second World War have had to
either deny or minimalize the Holocaust in order to open new
crimes against humanity. This document does exactly the same. It
has to minimize the Holocaust, make a mockery of the Holocaust,
kill the victims once again, in order to open again, in this case
anti-Semitism, but they could just as well be against foreign
workers or against other races or anything else. This is what
this document does.

We went there to try to see if we could find a reasonable
compromise and an agreement with all the peoples and the nations
there. We got a lot of support, I must say, as the Foreign
Minister very much stressed. I don't remember so much support
from all over the world - nations who have not supported us in
international forums before got up one after the other and were
annoyed at this arrogance which is kidnapping this conference for
their purposes.

I have to say one thing basic about racism, about the fight for
human rights. If they are not universal, if they do not apply to
everyone and everywhere, then they are, as they became here, a
vicious political weapon. Again, the language of hatred which
leads us nowhere.

I remember exactly one year ago I was together with then Prime
Minister Barak in the United Nations at the Millennium
Conference. There were 26 heads of state we met then, not more
than a year ago. Every one of these states, including some of the
Arab nations and other nations who don't usually support Israel,
said that the proposals then on the table would bring a different
future for both Israel and the Palestinian people, would give the
Palestinians their own right to self-determination, their own
state, their own future, their own dignity; their peace, which we
need also, because if they do not have peace, we will not have
peace; and if they do not have borders, we will not have borders.
That was on the table just one year ago. And now we hear that the
intifada and the language of violence - and there is a direct
connection between the hate language of the bombs - that has now
taken over.

Until we can get back on track again, what is on the table there
will not only harm the work of the United Nations, will not only
harm the fight against racism, but it will surely also harm
peace. Because you can make peace if you change the language. You
can make peace if the conflict is a conflict of territory. But
you can't make peace if you turn it into an existential conflict
where you delegitimize the other party. This is what we called on
in Durban when we saw that all hope was out. We had to leave
Durban, unfortunately, but we will not leave the fight for peace,
the fight for getting back to the language of peace instead of
the language of hate.

More on the Durban Conference