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Special guest editorial
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July 1st, 2002
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As the readership of this publication
consists mainly of English-speaking tourists and local
residents, it has always been our policy to stay as
far away as possible from anything even remotely associated
with politics, whether they be Mexican or foreign.
Puerto Vallarta is a peaceful beach
resort town. Its sole purpose is to help visitors enjoy
themselves and forget about the horrific events we hear
about in the daily news - at least for a short while.
However, that peaceful feeling was somewhat jarred into
an ugly reality just a few days prior to the celebration
of Canada Day and Independence Day.
A few of us from our mother publication
-the Tribuna de la Bahía- and from the Tribune
attended an event advertised as a "Teaching Conference"
to be given by the "Ambassador of Palestine to
Mexico". All of a sudden, we realized that our
town, named "the friendliest town in the world"
by the famous Condé Nast Travel magazine, was
being dragged right into the conflict that has been
raging in the Middle East for ages.
Due to some miscommunications, the
venue for the conference had to be changed on the last
day and perhaps that was the reason for the reduced
attendance. The groups that sponsored Mr. Fawzi M. Y.
El-Mashni's visit were the local Non Governmental Organizations
and the "Frente de Solidaridad Jalisco con el Pueblo
Palestino" (Front for the Solidarity of Jalisco
with the Palestinian People), an organization constituted
on May 12, 2002, in this state's capital, Guadalajara.
We wondered about the gentleman's
credentials considering that there is no embassy in
Mexico. The Palestinian people do have what is called
a "Special Delegation" in this country and
in Canada, as well as a "Permanent Observer Mission"
in the U.S., but no embassy in any of the three NAFTA
member nations, thus begging the question: How could
there be an ambassador? And if he is the representative
of the Palestinian delegation in Mexico City (as indicated
by Notimex, Mexico's newswire service), then why change
his title depending on the location of his audience?
As we were waiting to see if more
people would arrive, some reporters began to interview
Mr. El-Mashni (or Yussef as he is known in Mexico City)
on the topic of the lecture - "The status of the
Palestinian people today". He told the small gathering
of activists and NGO representatives how he had been
invited to address the Congress of the State of Jalisco
in Guadalajara, and how he had been given the keys to
the city. He then became quite agitated and proceeded
to condemn most vehemently the limitless support given
to the State of Israel by the United States while his
people lived in abject poverty in refugee camps.
According to the Saudi Embassy's
own press release, the telethon for the families of
Palestinian "martyrs," sponsored by the Saudi
Committee for Support of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, raised
U.S.$109.56 Million in 11 hours last April. A similar
telethon in Abu Dhabi raised more than U.S.$50 million,
while a Bahrain martyr-thon raised U.S.$10 million.
In the United Arab Emirates, a fund-raising campaign
organized by the state-owned media company raised more
than U.S.$12.5 million within a few hours. A telethon
in Dubai, another of the seven emirates, raised more
than U.S.$35 million, and more than U.S.$8.2 million
was raised in the neighboring Gulf state of Qatar, not
to mention Iraq's contributions to the families of the
"martyrs". All that during a few days.
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi, a Saudi political
analyst and the deputy editor in chief of Saudi Arabia's
English-language daily Arab News, wrote: "Saudi
men, women, and children donated $375 million USD to
their brethren under Israeli occupation."
At the Summit they held last March,
the Arab League pledged $330 million over six months
to support the Palestinian Authority, plus an additional
$150 million to support the Palestinian "uprising"
(intifada). If the Palestinians get no support - as
Mr. El-Mashni or Yussef would have us believe- then
where does all that money go?
We had many other questions to ask
of the gentleman, but no opportunity to do so, for example:
Why do the flyers he distributed to us say that the
Palestinian people have lived in the region for over
a thousand years but make no mention of the fact that
the Jews have had a continuous presence in the same
land for the past 3,300 years? Why speak of Jerusalem
and not mention the fact that the name of that Holy
City appears over 700 times in the Jewish Holy Scriptures
and not once in the Koran? Why say that the Hebrews
only "passed through the land of Palestine like
so many other emperors" without mentioning that
Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C., two thousand years
before the rise of Islam? Why state that "when
the Jews arrived in Jerusalem, the city already existed"
but omit the fact that it was the capital of King David's
kingdom? There are 21 Arab nations surrounding the State
of Israel which is the size of New Jersey. They have
much in resources. Why have they been unwilling to take
in the Palestinian refugees? Why not mention that the
Palestinians were chased out of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
during the Gulf War and give the reasons for such behavior?
There is a very large, thriving Jewish
community in the big cities throughout Mexico - Guadalajara,
Mexico City, Mérida, etc. and very little if
any anti-semitism. Mexico has always been proud of its
open doors policies. So why is this foreign gentleman
defaming Americans and Mexican Jews while fomenting
hatred among those who don't know any better?
Don't the local NGO's and the various
self-declared "fronts for human rights" have
enough on their plates right here, topics like the plight
of street kids, child prostitution, pedophilia, corruption,
hunger, etc.? Is it really necessary to drag the Middle
East conflict to the peaceful, sunny shores of Vallarta?
Allyna Vineberg
Editor
Vallarta Tribune
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