Founding Statement Of The Arab Council For Regional Integration
We, the founding members of the Arab Council for Regional Integration, seek through this nascent council, born of an unprecedented initiative, to support every effort to strengthen peace, coexistence, and reconciliation as well as integration among the countries of the region.
The Council seeks to encourage the capacity to resist conflict in the region, strengthen marginalized elements, and build trust among all the region’s peoples without exception. It seeks as well to support normal relations across the Middle East and North Africa, and to break the barrier of exclusion in all its forms.
The Arab Council for Regional Integration strives to launch new initiatives by our members that will benefit their countries by breaking the barrier of boycotting within the region — in particular, the Arab boycott of Israelis, which hindered partnership in technology, medicine, infrastructure, business, economy, and the expanse of human aspiration. The boycott also stymied hopes for peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples: Prevented from engaging either of the two peoples directly, Arabs were unable to cultivate ties that could have enabled us to foster conciliation and compromise on both sides. In sum, the boycott increased the suffering of our societies and weakened our capacities.
We believe that achieving security and prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa requires reconciliation within our societies and the peoples of the region.
We applaud the emergence of fair, level-headed voices calling for change and for fostering a culture of partnership between peoples of the region of all nationalities, religions, and cultures. Yet just as these encouraging trends are growing, a range of actors, both within the region and outside it, have been applying pressure to intensify the culture of exclusion and spread hate. These include, for example, some organizations and media outlets within Western countries, and from Latin America to the Far East, that incite civil strife, both within a given society and among the peoples of the region. They exploit democracy, freedoms, and advanced technologies to spread more hate into our region, in the service of their own agendas. These tragic campaigns have arrested development, prosperity, and progress in Arab nations; led to the spread of terrorism, extremism, and economic collapse; and hindered national reconciliation and regional peace.
Accordingly, the Arab Council for Regional Integration asks friends and allies, both within the region and in the international community, to help us reclaim the traditions of tolerance that graced our brightest days, in order to overcome the legacies of exclusion that have marred our past.
• We call upon governments to halt incitement and discourse which fuels racial, sectarian, and national division, as well as shoulder their responsibilities by waging proactive media and educational efforts to promote friendship across ethnic, sectarian, and national divides.
• We call upon the world’s democratic legislatures to enact social and economic policies that promote intra-regional human exchange.
• We call upon religious institutions to highlight those values of tolerance, compassion, and fraternity which are deeply embedded within their sacred texts.
• We call upon university faculty and administrators to lend their voices to the moral struggle for regional integration in the Middle East, and defend against the voices of intolerance and exclusion, whether within their walls or beyond. Likewise we call upon the global artistic community to cultivate opportunities for bridge-building through film, performances, literature, and visual arts.
• We call upon the private sector writ large to adopt a strategy of growth based on breaking down barriers to intraregional commerce and investment.
The Arab Council for Regional Integration calls for the development of a conscience, both among decision-makers and the general public, geared toward advancing the values of coexistence, partnership, and peace among all countries of the region without exception.
Finally, just as we hope that all will stand with us against all forms of boycotting and exclusion among the countries of the region, we call upon those at odds with our vision of regional peace and integration to engage us in spirited, open, and constructive debate rather than resort to old methods of silencing critics and demonizing reformers.