The International Peace Coalition Calls For Implementation of UN Resolution 242

Over the course of 18 weeks of private weekly meetings, the IPC, co-initiated by the Schiller Institute, has built up a high level of cooperation between representatives of international organizations of different political outlooks which shared the recognition that the drive for global war must be stopped in favor of security and development for all nations. The coalition’s first public meeting was held on Oct. 13.

Schiller Institute founder and chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche opened the event, emphasizing that the world situation has worsened dramatically with the war in Israel and Palestine. Many questions remain unanswered: was Israel really caught unaware, or was the Egyptian warning ignored in order to provoke a crushing defeat, once and for all, of the Palestinian people? Was the intent to sabotage the Saudi-Iran agreements? Was it to provoke a wider war against Iran, or even against the BRICS itself? Whatever the case may be, she insisted, efforts must be made to avoid further bloodletting of the civilian population through an indiscriminate retaliation. That is also the view of major opposition to Bibi Netanyahu within Israel (cf. below).

The solution, Helga Zepp-LaRouche said, is to put differences aside to prevent global war, and this can only be achieved with the “coincidence of opposites” approach of Nicholas of Cusa. Geopolitics must be eliminated, in favor of the principle of taking into account the “interests of the other” as per the Treaty of Westphalia. Concretely today, that means that a new architecture of development and security that applies to all countries must be recognized as the only means for peace. People need to think differently, to reject the idea that some people are animals or demons, and to look to the one mankind. The human mind, she said, is where the unity of mankind lies.

As an immediate action, it was proposed and accepted during the online meeting that the UN Resolution 242 from 1967, demanding an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, be included in a petition. Resolution 242 was signed by Israel but never implemented. It demanded:

1. “Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;

2. “Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force….”

Among the participants at the meeting were former CIA Russia expert Ray McGovern, former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar, former Virginia senator Col. Richard Black, Bowling Green State University professor emeritus Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Argentina Institute of Geopolitical Studies head Ruben Dario Guzzetti, US Senate candidate Diane Sare, as well as speakers from Pax Christi, the Libertarian Party, and from Ghana, Costa Rica, Nigeria, and Nicaragua.