Message from Mecca

Editorial

The moral failings of the pro-Palestinian movement are plain to those who seek them. The Palestinian Authority has been directly and indirectly complicit in the killings of Israeli civilians and has granted shelter to those whose overriding goal is the end of the Jewish presence in the Middle East.

The international defenders of the Palestinian cause overlook these facts, and all other inconvenient truths, sublimating every goal beyond Palestinian nationalism. Democracy, pluralism, freedom of and from religion, free expression, women's equality – these are all things that the Palestinians have given no indication of respecting and for which Palestinian activists worldwide have demanded no respect. Among the things that Palestinian apologists conveniently ignore are the abominable human rights abuses perpetrated by the PA, the assault and murder of gay people, the desecration of holy sites, the institutionalized child abuse inherent in the incitement to violence that constitutes education under the PA and so much more. These are obvious offences.

Yet another attack on the values of pluralism and religious freedom took place recently and it almost escaped our attention, too, were it not for a Catholic priest writing in a Canadian newspaper. Even at the moment when peace between factions of Palestinian society is being discussed, the exclusionary, xenophobic nature of that society is laid bare.

The discussions intended to find a peace between Hamas and Fatah took place in Mecca, a city off-limits to non-Muslims. This may not seem like a significant issue, since the players in this discussion were all Muslim. But, as Father Raymond De Souza pointed out in the National Post this week, many Palestinian Christians have been leading figures in diplomacy and public affairs. Even if these individuals were not directly involved in the talks, should the world have no concern about a major event of international significance taking place in a location that is open only to one faith community?

Imagine the cries of outrage were Israel to attempt to hold any sort of event with nobody but Jews permitted. It would never happen – in large part because Israel is a secular, pluralistic state that recognizes and respects the rights of minorities.

What is concerning in the Mecca case is not even so much that almost nobody but De Souza noted the moral issues around the exclusive nature of the host city. It is that the world did not even, for all intents, notice that everyone but Muslims were excluded from these peace talks.

There is a tendency to believe that anything Palestinians do is legitimized by the horrors of occupation. This is a phenomenon that is evidenced not only by Palestinian activists, but which is given a nod by Israel's defenders as well. Rarely is Israel defended without a disclaimer, something along the lines of "I don't agree with everything Israel does, but...." On the Palestinian side, no matter how appalling or egregious the assault on human dignity or morality, there is almost never the slightest withholding by pro-Palestinian voices giving full support of Palestine, right or wrong.

Condemnation of Palestinian leadership is almost nonexistent, in part because criticism can lead to dire consequences. But for North American activists, who are relatively safe to criticize, it is a glaring omission. Never is such an issue clearer than when suicide bombers kill Israeli civilians and the world community blames the victims by reviewing the litany of "crimes" that drive young Palestinians to self-destructive assassination. But it may be even more sinister in the Mecca case. Not only has the world community not expressed dismay over the exclusion of non-Muslims from the peace talks, almost no one has even recognized it as a factor.

The issue is a reminder that, for all the talk of a "free" Palestine, the eventual outcome of the Palestinian nationalist movement seems very likely to be a Palestine that is not very free at all. Palestinian "freedom fighters" tend to be allied with terrorist organizations like Hamas and others, whose goals are not free societies, but Islamist theocracies.

Even the idea of Hamas-Fatah talks, which are ostensibly to alleviate intra-Palestinian violence, seem oriented toward a goal of a mutual co-operation that is not representative of a pluralist democracy. A unity deal, if reached, will likely look less like democracy as we know it than it will a "unity" government in the style of Zimbabwe's co-opted one-party state.

Palestinian religious and cultural minorities – those who have not yet fled the oppressive homogeneity of life under the Palestinian Authority – are among the least free people in the world. It seems that their future under a fully operational Palestinian state will likely be as bright as a Zimbabwean farmer's.

The Mecca summit is not the worst offence perpetrated by the Palestinians and their allies. But it is an unequivocal statement of their prevailing view, which is that Palestine is a Muslim land, and this cannot bode well for religious minorities there.

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