Opinion Editorials, December 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
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Arab League overhaul
Jordan Times, Tuesday, December 30, 2003
THE ARAB League's call for a meeting at foreign ministers' level to examine ways and means to strengthen the Arab organisation and render it more effective is certainly timely. Only a few months before assuming the post of Arab League secretary general in May 2001, then-Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Musa was already calling for a radical overhaul of the organisation. At a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Amman, in advance of that year's Arab summit hosted by Jordan, Musa called for “greater interaction and increased coordination procedures amongst Arab states,” saying it was “high time for this regional body to assume its essential role in the face of new challenges and reactivate the role of its secretariat.”
Until now, the Arab League remains ineffective in areas where it is needed most, namely to resolve inter-Arab conflicts and disputes. The Arab League has proved itself rather competent in non-political issues, but when it comes to major Arab problems, it remains impotent. All previous efforts to improve the performance of the inter-Arab regional organisation have failed time and again.
The real problem with the league lies not so much with its institutional arrangements or rules and regulations, but rather with the Arab states themselves and how they view their commitments to the league. No matter how many institutional improvements are made to the structure of the league, it will remain ineffective as long as Arab capitals neglect their obligations to the Arab nation and the Arab cause.
In this sense, the Arab League's planned meeting in Cairo at the invitation of Musa amounts to putting the cart before the horse. It is the Arab countries themselves that require reshaping before they can be expected to act as faithful members of the league. It would seem that the Arab member states need to improve their commitment to pluralistic democracy and human rights across the board before they can be counted upon to play their natural role in the settlement of Arab concerns in all important fields. That is why the upcoming Arab League meeting should also discuss intra-Arab issues, over and above inter-Arab matters.
There is need to see more Arab commitment to democracy and human rights before the league is made truly a regional organisation able and ready to serve the Arab cause.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |
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