UN report tackles Arab despondency

At this moment, a sectarian divide is proliferating in a dangerous manner, and the “doctrine of responsibility of governments” to protect civilians is completely marginalized and, in certain instances, has been voided by the ongoing proliferation of terrorist groups whose ruthlessness is so alien to Arab and Islamic tradition and culture.

The growing disappointment, and at times disillusionment — given the promise of the Arab Spring, with the prospect of Palestinians having a sovereign and independent state with Jerusalem as its capital not forthcoming as promised, with the growing marginality of the Arab League and divisive politics in Libya, Egypt, Yemen, and the current dangers of a sectarian civil war emerging in Iraq — and all the complexity, divisiveness, popular frustration, and flaws in the Arab situation and the growing disposition on the part of many Arab intelligentsia to give up on Arab nationalism have rendered disillusionment the prevailing sentiment, and resignation from hope the definition of “realism.”

Amid this deficit of hope, a positive development took place June 17 in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, with the release of "Arab Integration," a report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) that has been in preparation for nearly 2½ years. It was compiled by a distinguished team of Arab scholars, intellectuals, economists, sociologists, political activists, cultural figures and women empowerment advocates, under the exemplary leadership of Rima Khalaf, undersecretary-general and head of ESCWA.

Arab Integration puts at the forefront serious, realistic consequential answers to the endemic crisis and problems facing Arabs as well as a compass to restore hope, energize optimism and confront the recklessness and ruthlessness of all the intruders who seek not only to disrupt but also to destroy the prospects of a renewed Arab renaissance.