International forum pushes peace in Mediterranean region
2009-09-24
Peace can be achieved in the Middle East and Mediterranean region through hard work and co-operation, according to leaders gathered at this week's Restore Trust International Forum in Stockholm.
By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 24/09/09
 [Abdelhak Senna/AFP/Getty Images] Moroccan Royal Adviser André Azoulay says civil society should be engaged "even-handedly and without double standards" in pursuit of peace. |
World leaders should not miss "a historic opportunity to create the conditions for peace in the Middle East and wider Mediterranean region," said participants in the Restore Trust International Forum, which was held Monday and Tuesday (September 20-21st) in Stockholm.
Among the leading voices at the event were former UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and André Azoulay, who is counsellor to King Mohammed VI of Morocco and head of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The foundation organised the forum in collaboration with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the European Commission, the UN Alliance of Civilisations and Sweden's National Museums of World Culture.
"Across civil society, through our common action, we must … help restore a new momentum for a different peace in the region, nurtured more even-handedly and without double standards when addressing issues such as human dignity and respect," Azoulay told forum participants, who included political and human rights leaders, as well as media and civil society representatives from over 30 Union for the Mediterranean member states.
The forum's goal was to discuss prospects for peace and to present the outcomes of the Anna Lindh Foundation's "Restore Trust, Rebuild Bridges" initiative, which engages civil society organizations in a region-wide drive for co-existence. Launched in the aftermath of Israel's 2009 invasion of the Gaza Strip, the collaborative initiative spans the 43 countries of the Union for the Mediterranean.
Presenters at the forum provided participants with the initial outcomes of over 50 civil society projects launched in recent months in conjunction with NGOs working at the grass-roots level across the Euro-Mediterranean region, as well as with Palestinian and Israeli civil society.
"It's essential that we keep this new vision of peace alive … and ensure that civil society can speak out within the new regional framework designed by [US President Barack Obama] … and the Union for the Mediterranean," Azoulay said at the event, which was held to coincide with the International Day of Peace on September 21st.
Azoulay's appeal is "a call made at the right time, especially because a better future for this region requires us to hard work in order to realize peace," human rights activist Adnan Al Hasnaoui, a Tunisian, told Magharebia in a statement. "There are international efforts being made, and the Arab and Muslim countries have to help in making progress towards the two-state solution [in Israel and Palestine]."
"The will for peace requires building bridges of understanding with the 'other'," added Hasnaoui. "It's brave to have the will to build and engage in good work rather than surrender to hatred and evil."
Sirin Abdi, a Tunisian feminist activist, said she liked Azoulay's call because "it speaks to the human conscience and calls for extending bridges between peoples and aspires to put an end to conflicts that have harmed all humanity without exception."
"We have to not only maintain this bridge, but strengthen it as well, for the good of … future generations," she added.
However, Tunisian lawyer and human rights activist Saida Garrache considered the project troubling "because it is an introduction to establishing other political, linguistic, ethnic and religious and other closures. It's also an introduction to marking borders that would necessarily imply the exclusion of people on whose threshold the borders are marked."
Tunisian student Maher Ziani, meanwhile, called for "not passing [judgment] on the project. Rather, we have to deal with it with good intentions and open arms."
"All of us, whether Arabs or others, have been victims of prejudices for decades now, and we have been unknowingly condemning each other," he said. "This has led to a sort of misunderstanding that we have to deal with."
"I think that this call speaks to all of our consciences, and invites us to look at the future with optimism," he added. "I hope that this call won't be shelved."
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Kamal Posted 2009-09-24
We hope that this forum will denounce Morocco’s policies, which have been sowing instability in the Maghreb for 34 years.
Anonymous Posted 2009-09-26
It is unthinkable that this forum is also dealing with another issue that so holds the hearts of many inhabitants on the southern coast of the Mediterranean. How do we put an end to the oppression of the populations occupied by the criminals who took power and present themselves as politicians? Whereas, the civilised countries succeeded in separating church and state, in the Maghreb we must require the separation of mafia and state.
BEN Posted 2009-09-27
This is rather a dialogue between the rulers of the Maghreb on the one hand and the rulers of the Arab countries bordering the Mediterranean on the other. It is necessary to champion the reduction of the gap between rulers and civil society. The problem with the borders inherited from colonialism – particularly with the Western Sahara and Palestine – is that Europe is not really very active in terms of the peace and stability necessary for the (for now, theoretical) construction of the Mediterranean. Europe is preoccupied with its borders, its reserves of well-priced manpower, and its part of the market. As for its Mediterranean policies, it has no interest in this changing. Regarding the dialogue, we understand quite well what this is about.
HAKIM Posted 2009-09-28
Let us hope that one day the Algerians will rid themselves of their regime, their illegitimate, criminal government so that the Maghreb will be better. Let us hope that the Polisario finds another host country besides Algeria.
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