Jo’Burg summit already politicized
- August 27, 2002
- No Comments
The Jerusalem Post is saying that the UN summit in Johannesburg has already been turned into a political event by the Palestinians in attendance. South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said he hoped that the summit would be a “positive, apolitical event”, but the Simon Wiesenthal Center accused the South African government of making this event political by supporting the Palestinians call for the release of the terrorist Marwan Barghouti. Barghouti’s wife compared him to Mandela and said he was only a freedom fighter who “is not in favor of killing civilians”, even though Barghouti chairs the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which has taken credit for the murders of Israeli men, women, and children.
This is why I think these summits are impotent. One group hijacks what could have been a great event, and instead turns it into a finger-pointing, accusational fiasco. NOTHING gets accomplished then. Not only is Israel falsely accused, but the rest of the nations represented are insulted. They came to work out how they can ease poverty levels and create sustainable businesses and projects in developing countries, but instead are forced to listen to one group throw insults and false accusations at another group. It cripples the effectiveness of these meetings and, if allowed to continue, will put off countries wanting to come to the next summit. If they’re always turning into political events, what’s the point of going? The world should make a stand and not allow these events to become politicized. Any group that tries to do so, will be booted from the present meeting and banned from the next one.