{"id":106998,"date":"2025-02-16T10:30:45","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T15:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/?p=106998"},"modified":"2025-02-18T06:18:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T11:18:22","slug":"press-release-south-africas-pandor-the-schiller-institutes-oasis-plan-for-the-middle-east-offers-an-opportunity-for-us-to-think-of-the-world-in-a-different-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/el\/blog\/2025\/02\/16\/press-release-south-africas-pandor-the-schiller-institutes-oasis-plan-for-the-middle-east-offers-an-opportunity-for-us-to-think-of-the-world-in-a-different-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Release: South Africa\u2019s Pandor: The Schiller Institute\u2019s \u2018Oasis Plan\u2019 for the Middle East Offers an Opportunity for Us To Think of the World in a Different Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Feb. 15, 2025 (EIRNS)\u2014The following international press release was issued by the Schiller Institute for immediate distribution. For further information: questions@schillerinstitute.org<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Naledi Pandor, South Africa\u2019s former Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (2019-2024) stated on Feb. 14: \u201cI believe we should have the spirit of Mandela, that freedom is possible; that the Palestinian people will enjoy sovereignty, justice, and freedom. And that the Oasis Plan offers an opportunity for us to think of the world in a different way. So, let us marshal our resources; let\u2019s not seize at this point. Let us be ambitious; let us be optimistic. Because [Nelson] Mandela has shown that things that we imagine impossible are indeed possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were the closing words delivered by Dr. Pandor\u2014internationally renowned for successfully bringing the case of Israeli genocide before the International Court of Justice\u2014to the 89th weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC), established in May 2023 at the initiative of Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche. Sharing the platform as panelists with Dr. Pandor were Donald Ramotar, former President of Guyana (2011-2015); Dennis Fritz, director of the Eisenhower Media Network (EMN) and retired Command Chief Master Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force; and Helga Zepp-LaRouche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her opening remarks to the IPC gathering, \u201cEnding the Cycle of Violence in Southwest Asia Requires Creating a Future for All Its Inhabitants,\u201d Zepp-LaRouche stressed the urgency of discussion and activation, because \u201cthe old order is breaking apart, however the new order has not yet taken shape\u2026. We are in the most dramatic change of an epoch, which is on the one side fraught with incredible dangers\u2014and the danger of a global nuclear war is still not completely off the table\u2014but on the other side, I think there absolutely is hope that if we join our efforts, we can move humanity into a better era of a New Paradigm\u2026. [We must] agree on a new global security and development architecture which takes into account the interests of every single country on the planet, in the tradition of the Peace of Westphalia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zepp-LaRouche added that \u201cthe Middle East is right now the most urgent question, and we should fight to get the combination of an Arab peace plan as it is promoted by Egypt and other Arab countries, but with the addition that the two-state solution must include an Oasis Plan, with its wide development perspective for the entire Middle East\u2014not just Israel and Palestine, but for the entire Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Pandor heartily concurred: \u201cI think the Oasis Plan presents a set of very useful proposals that could be looked at by groupings that are in contention, as the basis for further discussion\u2026. We need leadership. We need to find a way, through the Schiller Institute, of identifying who are the adults in the room\u2026. Who is ready to engage in a serious fashion to actually settle matters of the world?\u2026 I believe that the Schiller Institute, along with other organizations of similar strength, could begin to assume that leadership role, primarily for purposes of convening, of initiating conversation, and developing an agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Pandor also struck a warning note: \u201cIf we miss this moment, I think we can\u2019t imagine the chaos that will confront us. So, this is a time in which we need to use all the institutional capacity available to us to ensure that we return to rationality, and that we have discussions and processes that address our deep-seated problems of inequality, of lack of livelihood, of insecurity caused by conflict\u2026. I think we now need to build a truly practical and effective global coalition that will address these development challenges\u2026. I support the former President of Guyana when he says that there\u2019s a very important link between peace and development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in the dialogue, former Guyanese President Donald Ramotar had emphasized the necessary linkage between peace and development, calling for a \u201cbold plan, like [Chinese President] Xi Jinping\u2019s win-win approach, with no losers.\u201d The LaRouche Oasis Plan, he said, is based on combined peace and development, and it presents a viable plan to reconstruct Gaza and the region, and it can be a central part of a global plan, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dennis Fritz also endorsed the Oasis Plan as a useful contribution to finding a peaceful solution to the entrenched Middle East crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the lively discussion period, Dr. Pandor was asked about how to address the underdevelopment of Africa. She noted that \u201cthe Oasis Plan speaks to many issues of importance to the African continent. If you take the 17 priorities of Agenda 2063<\/a>, the plan that we call \u2018The Africa We Want,\u2019 you will see that those priorities link in very clear terms to the goals that are set out, the various initiatives on energy, sustainability, water quality, water infrastructure that are set out in the Oasis Plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked to discuss how South Africa had managed to defeat apartheid, Dr. Pandor recalled: \u201cThe ANC (African National Congress) began as an organization drawing Africans together; but over time, as it confronted the oppressive forces, it realized that actually oppression is about values and principles. It\u2019s not simply about identity\u2026. Confronting the apartheid state was to confront the evil of apartheid, and not to confront white persons.\u201d She added: \u201cSouth Africa was in that way I think quite unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Pandor was also asked about the Trump administration\u2019s recent decision to cut economic aid to South Africa, and she addressed the participants in the IPC gathering: \u201cI\u2019m saddened at the cuts for funding to South Africa, but I believe through your friendship, through persuasion and diplomatic engagement with the government of the United States of America, we will be able to persuade that in fact South Africa is a very good partner for the United States of America. And that the values that are espoused by South Africa through its Constitution and its Bill of Rights, are values that are very attuned to values that have traditionally been associated with the United States of America\u2026. So, who are the people who can speak to President Trump, who can speak to President von der Leyen, who can speak to Chancellor Scholz?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International Peace Coalition gathering was broadcast live on Zoom, YouTube and other platforms to more than 1,000 participants from close to 50 countries, with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish, German and French. The full video can be viewed here.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n