African Envoys Change Their Tune After Seeing Israel's Fence

Well, folks, seeing is believing. The result? It IS just a fence. It is NOT a land grab as Arab delegates constantly claim. And most importantly, ISRAEL HAS THE RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF AGAINST TERROR ATTACKS, dammit !

Please read this article and pass it on to every blogger and media journalist you know!! STOP ARAB MENDACITY NOW!!!!

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Mar. 3, 2004
Improve your PR, suggest African envoys
By HERB KEINON

The security fence looks nothing like Atoki Ileka imagined, a sure sign, he said, that Israel is not getting its message across to the African countries. Ileka, the UN Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was one of six UN ambassadors from Africa who toured the security fence Tuesday as part of a six-day visit. The others are from Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda, Benin, and the Ivory Coast.

"You are poor in terms of public relations," Ileka said. "There is a lack of communication. You need to expend more time on the African countries."

"I always viewed it as a wall," Ileka said of the security barrier. "But now I realize it is more a fence than a wall, and that only a small part of it is a wall. We will consult our capital, and the next time we make a decision, we will make it having seen the situation."

The Democratic Republic of the Congo was one of 20 countries that didn't cast a vote in December, when the UN General Assembly voted to send the fence issue to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

He said it is "a bit early" to speculate how his country will vote if the ICJ sends the issue back to the UN with a recommendation to impose sanctions against Israel.

In this case, the General Assembly would likely kick the issue to the Security Council. Benin is one of the countries on the council, and voted for the decision to send the issue to the ICJ, as did the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Rwanda absented itself, and Uganda abstained.

Francis Bupagira, the UN ambassador from Uganda, said that the visit to the security fence convinced him the route of the fence is not a "land grab," as the Arab delegates to the UN constantly claim, but rather was planned because of security imperatives. "My opinion all along has been that the country has the right to defend itself against terror attacks," he said.

Bupagira said he doesn't think Uganda would favor a UN resolution imposing sanctions as a result of an ICJ ruling.

The tour, organized by the Foreign Ministry, the Israel-American Friendship League, and New York businessman Michael Landau, is part of an effort to improve Israel's standing in the international community.

Diplomatic officials said the ambassadors, who come from countries whose voting record on Israel at the UN has been described as "problematic," were brought here in an attempt to let them see Israel first hand in order to combat the propaganda they are fed by Arab delegates at the UN.

The visit, according to the diplomatic officials, is significant because these ambassadors traditionally have a freer hand in shaping their country's policy at the UN than do ambassadors from other parts of the world.

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