Darfur SLM rebel leader confirms visit to Israel

February 18, 2009 (PARIS) — Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur, the founder of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, said today he visited Israel recently in a move to boost social normalization between the Sudanese and Israeli peoples, pledging for strategic relations between the two countries.

The rebel leader confirmed reports published by Israeli press this week about his visit to Tel Aviv. The daily Haaretz had said he paid the visit at his own initiative with some French Jewish, to attend a security conference there. The report also said he met with a senior Israeli security official.

However Al-Nur, who opened an office in Israel since February last year, said that his visit to Israel is like any visit he pays to any country in the world and he wondered why people are focusing on it.

The rebel leader added they reject the hatred that the Sudanese government is teaching to the Sudanese about the Jewish people. He also hailed the positive attitude of the Israeli authorities for providing refuge to the Darfuri who fled the war in Darfur.

“I went there to meet my fellows from Sudan and Darfur particularly. Since the opening of our office there last year, I was thinking about this trip to meet the members of the movement there.”

Al Nur also said he held a public meeting attended by more than one thousand of the Sudanese refugees from different parts of the country. He urged them to keep their ties with their families and follow closely the political situation there despite the difficulties of contact.

Sudan, which considers Israel as an enemy state, has no diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv and remains hostile to the Jewish state on the grounds that it is occupying Arab lands. Sudan also is seen by the Israeli government as one of the main supporters of the Islamist Hamas movement after Iran.

The Sudanese government informed Khartoum papers lately that several Darfur rebel movements are armed and supplied by Israel through France. The rebels dismiss this.

Al-Nur said his relation with Israel is founded on the principles of the SLM, which appeals for pacific coexistence between people and the mutual respect of religions and traditions.

“We did not go there to ask for mercy or support but because we deeply feel we have nothing that is preventing us in the SLM from that. Particularly we call for strategic relations between the two peoples in harmony with the interests of the two peoples.”

The rebel leader praised the authorities there for giving Sudanese the opportunity to study in the Israeli universities and work there, describing these steps as social normalizations between the two peoples. He also pledged to work for the political normalization between the two countries in the future.

“We got rid of hatred and liberated ourselves from such negative slogans about the existence of Israel, and we want to live in peace with all the people. This would not affect our support for the creation of a Palestinian state besides Israel,” he added.

In March 2008 a spokesperson of the SLA military reaffirmed to Sudan Tribune their support for the opening of an office in Israel. Commander Abdel-Rahman Adam Nimer slammed what he described as a “campaign of stigmatization led by the Sudanese government in the name of Islam.” He added they “are in no need for religious lessons and are very well aware of the Islamic precepts and have no complex in this regard.”

This week the Associated Press distributed pictures of a joint wedding ceremony in Tel Aviv where three couples from Darfur married there. They are part of hundreds of Darfuri who have sought refuge in recent years in the Jewish state, arriving across the border illegally from Egypt.

According to the UNHCR figures, there are some 600 Darfuri in Israel whom local authorities have granted all asylum and work permits.

(ST)