McAlexander on Tue, 23 Apr 2002 04:30:01 +0200 (CEST)


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[Nettime-bold] Saudi intellectuals say U.S. and Israel are axis of evil



Sun Apr 21,11:36 AM ET 

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A group of Saudi intellectuals and writers has
condemned the United States and Israel and described them as the axis of
evil in the world - borrowing a phrase U.S. President George Bush has
used for Iran, Iraq and North Korea (news - web sites).
  
The 113 Saudis, some of them prominent writers for respected Saudi
papers, said the American role in the Israeli military operation against
the Palestinians was "shameful" and said the "Israeli massacres do not
differ in shape or form from what the Nazis did."

The writers called in a statement released Saturday on all Arab
governments to severe diplomatic, political and economic ties with
Israel and urged Arabs to boycott all American products.

"We consider the United States and the current American administration
the nurturer of international terrorism with distinction and it, along
with Israel, form the axis of terrorism and evil in the world," said the
statement.

The statement said Arab governments should take "serious and responsible
steps ... and apply all means of pressure on the American administration
to make it feel that its huge interests in the Arab region are
threatened."

It said failure to do so will lead to "national disasters that will
include everyone."

Among the signatories were a writer for the widely respected Al-Hayat
and a former undersecretary of the Saudi Interior Ministry.

The statement comes at a time when anti-American sentiment is at a high
level over what Arabs see as U.S. support for Israel in the conflict
with the Palestinians.

On Friday, the chief cleric of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Sheik Abdul
Rahman al-Sudais, called on the Arabs to abandon peace efforts with
Israel because they were "impossible."

Al-Sudais said Arabs should bid farewell to peace with the Jews, whom he
described as "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the
killers of prophets and the grandsons of monkeys and pigs."

He called on Muslims to stand with the Palestinians financially and in
kind, saying that peace with Israel was futile because it only "accepts
liquidating its opponent, taking over his land, making his people
homeless and canceling his dignity. They want the state of Greater
Israel. They want to eliminate the nation of one God and the Quran."

 


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