Arab-Americans Urge Arab League to Press Disney to Correct Record, Include Palestinian Exhibit
Washington D.C., September 24 — The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee (ADC) welcomes the Arab League engagement with the Israel exhibit which will open in the Disney World at the end of the month, and urges the League to further pursue the matter with Disney.
Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid said that “We have considered the response of Walt Disney to delete any reference about Jerusalem being the capital city of Israel as an important step taken by Walt Disney.” ADC agrees with this position, and urges the Arab League to continue to engage with Disney to ensure that it includes disclaimers on the Israel exhibit which properly distance Disney from the political position strongly implied in the exhibit that occupied Arab East Jerusalem is part of Israel. Such disclaimers are necessary to correct the impression that Disney endorses Israeli‘s illegitimate claims on Arab East Jerusalem.
East Jerusalem is universally recognized as territory under foreign military occupation, conquered by Israel during the 1967 war. East Jerusalem was been recognized as an area under foreign military occupation in 1967 by UN Security Council Resolution 242. Israel‘s annexation of Arab East Jerusalem in 1980 was unanimously rejected by the UN Security Council, including the United States, which emphasized the inadmissability of the acquisition of territory by force. The U.S. has never recognized Jerusalem as a part of Israel, and, as a result, the U.S. embassy in Israel is located in Tel Aviv. Indeed, almost all embassies in Israel are in Tel Aviv because of the strong international consensus against Israel‘s claim of sovereignty in Jerusalem.
ADC also urges the Arab League to ensure that a Palestinian exhibit is presented at Disney World either as part of the Millennium Village or in the near future, as a further correction of the record and a representation of the perspectives of the Christian and Muslim Palestinian residents of Arab East Jerusalem who continue to live under Israeli military occupation. Disney says that its Israel exhibit “tells the story of the role Jerusalem has played throughout history.” That story must be expanded to include the Palestinian Jeruselamites, who are in any way not Israelis, and whose culture and heritage, including such holy sites as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque are not features of Israeli society or culture.
ADC President Hala Maksoud said that “This is but a small side-show in the larger battle for Jerusalem. But to allow Israel to project Jerusalem as an integral part of its sate, even in a Disney World pavilion, would be a precedent mutilating truth, distorting records and perverting history.”