A Troubling Silence on the Middle East

The Middle East and Northern Africa seemed to have disappeared altogether from the administration's human rights agenda, although it was not for want of problems. Egypt, Algeria and Israel confronted violence from Islamic militants, but their response included torture, the excessive use of lethal force, and restrictions on association and expression. These acts, themselves violations of human rights standards, fueled a climate of extremism by closing off legitimate avenues of dissent. Yet the administration greeted them with virtual silence and unconditional support for the governments in question.

The administration took U.S. policy a disturbing step backward when it came to Israel's deportation of 400 Palestinians to Lebanon. Following longstanding U.S. practice, the Bush administration had condemned the deportations as violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Ignoring the law, the Clinton administration treated the deportations as a mere political problem, accepting Israel's decision to return one-fourth of the deportees as sufficient compliance with a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding immediate repatriation of them all.

Regression was also apparent in the administration's reversal of an eight-year ban on lethal sales to Lebanon without linking the resumption to human rights progress. The administration exchanged high-level visits with Lebanese officials, but the meetings seemed designed to bolster the Lebanese government and to ensure active participation in the Middle East peace process, rather than to address the Lebanese government's campaign against the press, jailing of opponents, banning of demonstrations, and attacks on peaceful demonstrators. Indeed, less than a month after the Lebanese army killed eight peaceful demonstrators and injured dozens, Edward Djerejian, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, in a major policy address, expressed only praise for the army and argued for increased aid.

The administration's disregard for human rights in the Middle East is particularly troubling in light of the peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. A major obstacle to a successful peace effort is the threat of severe abuse by Israeli or Palestinian forces and their allies. Washington risks squandering this tremendous opportunity by diminishing its human rights advocacy in the region. The wrong message was sent when the regional press quoted President Clinton, in a telephone conversation with President Hafez al-Asad, as effectively urging that critics of the peace accord be silenced. The White House never denied the accuracy of the quote. It is hoped that Secretary Shattuck's scheduled visit to Israel, the occupied territories and Egypt in late 1993 willprovide an occasion to redress this neglect.