International Conference in Support of Resistance

Beirut 16th-19th of November 2006

Final Statement 

Source: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/BeirutResistance.htm

The People’s Right to Resistance

• The greater or new Middle East projects are considered aggressive U.S. initiatives aiming at Balkanizing the area and inundating it in conflicts and wars in order to continuously control it and pillage its resources.
• Rejection of the “Clash of Civilizations” ideology which is propagated by the American administration and directs aggressive war and hegemony policies towards a trend establishing the basis for a new world war. 
• Continuing work aiming at the establishment of an inclusive and universal solidarity framework comprising all resistance movements and the forces supporting them within the Arab and Islamic world and worldwide; so that it can constitute one of the links within the chain of the existing worldwide frameworks and not be a parallel or substitute framework.
• Working towards developing more and greater relations between leftist, democratic and nationalist currents and Islamic and resistance movements, in order to consolidate and strengthen inclinations that oppose the Imperialist-Zionist alliance within the area and worldwide and in response to current and future challenges.
• Crystallizing the theoretical and intellectual premises for reconciling leftist and nationalist currents with resisting Islamic ones, in order to propel liberation movements within the Arab and Islamic area and all over the world, forward.
• Developing a revolutionary intellectual vision that comprises the aims of liberation, development, unity and democracy.
• Presenting an innovative concept of Arab nationalism that is more in tune with the necessities of regional integration and grants greater respect for diversity and pluralism within the Arab nation.
• Disseminating the resistance culture and rejecting naturalization and subservience to the American – Zionist alliance.
• Exposing the American plot against Iraq and reiterating support for the Iraqi resistance against the American occupation and its projects, repercussions and tools.
• Expressing solidarity with the Jordanians’ struggle within the framework of rejecting normalization projects and for revocation of the Wadi Araba agreement and its results.
• Calling for and working towards unifying the efforts of all forms of resistance on the level of each Arab country and on the regional and world-wide levels and working for the crystallization of an Arab resistance project that includes the various resistance forces in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq with the aim of toppling the American and Zionist occupations in the area.
• Considering the victory of the struggle against the American –Zionist offensive on all levels, calls for intensifying the peaceful struggle against their policies for hegemony in the Arab and Islamic world and worldwide.
• Adopting a policy of creating wide fronts on both the national and regional scales and on the basis of shared aims and objectives, while granting due respect to the special conditions within each and every society and country.
• Linking solidarity with Arab and worldwide resistance to the various forms of democratic and social struggles.
• Forming a network that would support or include the various political and social Arab bodies involved in resistance. This network of activities will be supervised by a combined local and regional coordinating committee, which will activate a communication process between its national frameworks using various methods (regular meetings, correspondence, the Internet) , in addition to organizing wide popular actions and activities on a regular basis throughout the year in order to express solidarity with Arab resistance movements:- a day in solidarity with the Lebanese people and their resistance on the 12th of July; with the Iraqi people and their resistance on the 20th of March and with the Palestinian people on the 28th of September of each year, in support of their resistance in order to liberate their country and to implement their right to return to their homeland.
• Forming an Arab Conscience Court in order to bring war criminals and perpetrators of crimes against humanity to justice, due to their role in exposing both the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples to these crimes. And also bringing those responsible for all the crimes against members of the resistance, and political prisoners and especially those within Israeli prisons to justice.
• Consolidating and expanding the scope of efforts aiming at facing and confronting the campaigns launched, especially within Western circles and that aim at blemishing the image of the resistance within the framework of the so called “war against terrorism” by deceivingly confusing the image of resistance and freedom fighters with one of members of fanatic and violent movements.
• Calling upon Arab and Islamic states and forces and all the regional states to participate effectively in the preservation of the unity of Iraq, it’s Arabism and its liberation from the occupation.
• Supporting the Palestinian people’s struggle for the achievement of all their national rights.
• Supporting Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to obtain all their legal and humanitarian rights.
• Considering American-Zionist threats against all peoples in the region and their states as an incentive for the formation of a strategic Arab /Iranian agreement which can partake in unifying all vital forces against the American-Zionist project.
• Considering the yardstick of political standpoints the main component of the resistance front challenging the Imperialist project in the area in opposition to any consideration related to religion, creed or race.
• Condemning American and Israeli threats against countries in the area and the vital forces within them and preparing for popular mobilization against any attacks.
• Considering the fact that Israel owns nuclear power and weapons, as a continuous threat to both regional and international peace and security; and requesting a firm stand by all the peoples of the world in order to disarm nuclear weapons from the region, whilst emphasizing all the regional states’ rights to own nuclear capabilities for peaceful purposes.  

• Establishing an international forum for Human and people’s rights including lawyers and human rights activists from all over the world in coordination with the Arab Lawyers’ Union and the Arab Human Rights Association.
• Establishing an international Internet website in order to exchange legal experiences in the field of suing Israel and bringing Israeli war criminals to court.
• Coordinating efforts to collect documents, affidavits and evidence related to the effects of aggression within the framework of “The Arab Center for Documenting War Crimes and Legal Litigation” in the field of the following war crimes, aggressive acts and crimes against humanity:
• killing civilians, uprooting them and destroying civil edifices, bridges, roads, electric plants, ports, airports and shelling other various forms of transport depots.
• Destroying the environment and especially polluting the Lebanese shoreline, which will have repercussions on all the countries within the Mediterranean Basin.
• Destroying the media apparatus and broadcasting stations of al-Manar T.V. and many others, on purpose.
• Recommending support of the Court of Conscience which will be held in Geneva to take the Israeli war criminals to court for their perpetrations within Lebanon under the auspices of the Bertrand Russell Foundation upon the first anniversary of the war.

• Calling upon the Lebanese government to work for the establishment of an ad hoc International Court for the same purpose.
• Calling upon European lawyers and human rights activists to work with their citizens with the aim of placing pressure upon their governments in order to sue Israel and force it to compensate for its war crimes and pay for the cost of dismantling the cluster bombs, which the UNIFIL forces are currently carrying out.
• Documenting the legal violations perpetrated since the establishment of the State of Israel until the present and working for Israel’s litigation.
• Appealing to the peoples of the world and all governments and civic bodies to support the Palestinian refugees’ right to return to the whole of their homeland in compliance with international laws and conventions.
• Preparing for holding an international conference in solidarity with the Lebanese people and their resistance on the first anniversary of the war i.e. – 12th July 2007.
• Compelling the Lebanese government to submit complaints and to file law suits against Israel and the perpetrators of war crimes within various specialized international bodies, the most important of which are:
• The International Court of Justice
• The International Criminal Court
• A special court set up according to a decision by the  Security Council; and in case this does not take place they should resort to the General Assembly so that it will establish such a court according to resolution 50/377 (The Union for Peace).
• Calling upon European and International movements to adopt and support the Lebanese’ resort to national courts within their countries of residence
• Contacting human rights committees and sub-committees of the UN such as the: - Children’s Rights, Women’s Rights, and Environment sub –committees and the Human Rights Council.
• Widening litigation to include Britain and the U.S. for their participation in the offensive.
• Carrying out an international legal media campaign to explain the Israeli violations of international laws and conventions.
• Carrying out an international media campaign to disseminate information about the resistance in Lebanon and the rest of the Arab resistance movements in Palestine and Iraq against the Israeli and American occupations explaining their aims, the fairness of their cause and the legitimacy of their struggle in light of general international and humanitarian law.
• Distinguishing between terrorism and peoples’ struggles for their liberation, freedom and self-determination.
• Struggling for the establishment of a Middle East void of weapons of mass destruction.
• Exposing the partial nature of resolution 1701, which places the UNIFIL forces on one side of the borders and struggling against its interpretation in a form that threatens its entrapment into facing the Lebanese resistance.
• Encouraging Arab countries to sign the bylaws of the International Criminal Court and other human rights conventions.  

• Considering the media an essential arena for the imposed struggle in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and the whole area.
• Adopting a media confrontation policy based on building complete conceptual, value and linguistic systems aiming at facing the groups solicited by the aggressor and through which it practices hegemony.
• Clarifying the intersection between the struggles of all peoples and striving to establish a worldwide network against the American-Zionist project which does not only target the area but also humanity.
• Forming a working body of media personnel and writers who can participate in focal work so as to:
• Create a discussion group (blog) on the Internet.
• Call on interested journalists and writers to join the blog.
• Suggest a definition and framework for its work and make it accountable within the media.
• Prepare a worldwide list of journalists and writers who are ready to cooperate or who hold standpoints that correspond to ours and work towards contacting them and making their writings known through publication.
• Hold a meeting after two or three months to evaluate its work and make the appropriate decisions.
• Establish a media watch that can survey journalists and writers who are enemies, monitoring all that is published and organizing responses in a highly professional and methodological fashion, which will allow us to move towards expanding the circle of building an international media apparatus supportive of the choice of resistance and that can stand up to opposing media.  

The participants in the conference agreed upon describing the results of the Israeli aggression against the southern suburbs of Beirut and Lebanese towns and villages as an act of “habitat annihilation” as the aggression targeted residential areas that were populated and incurred damages to colossal numbers of homes and economic installations reaching over 130,000 all over Lebanon.

The conference also alluded to the role of the resistance and its institutions on the level of reconstruction and removing the effects of the aggression in addition to the support of the Lebanese society’s steadfastness during and after the Israeli offensive and it calls for:  

• Adopting a social development vision for reconstruction which takes the needs of the population into consideration as they are stated by them, which will allow the improvement of the destroyed areas and will meet the various humanitarian needs.
• Directing the greatest possible amount of support towards Lebanese civil institutions concerned with aid and reconstruction and especially the resistance institutions as they have carried out and are still carrying out an essential role in support of Lebanese society to face the Israeli offensive. This requires overcoming the legal and financial obstacles which have been placed by the international financial and legal systems in the face of the overflowing amounts of aid arriving under various pretexts.
• In this aspect the conference calls for the creation of committees to support societies in each of the targeted countries and their task would be to support the Lebanese to face the offensive.
• Granting attention to the situation within the destroyed Lebanese villages and rebuilding them in a manner that will guarantee and conserve their special rural heritage,
• Launching an initiative for discussion rounds at the international level, with bodies and experts in the field of reconstruction who are interested in participating in order to develop construction in a way that will ensure the humanitarian, social and developmental objectives of this process.
• The conference recommends, within this framework, that those supervising the reconstruction process should maintain the symbolism of the event according to the three aspects of: victory, steadfastness and sacrifice.
• Organizing Arab and international campaigns to rebuild the cultural, social and heritage locations that form the essential landmarks in the area and play a role in producing culture and knowledge.