Democratic Palestine : 34 (ص 26)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 34 (ص 26)
- المحتوى
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Committees (in the occupied
territories); and Meir Amor, an Israeli
of Moroccan origin who, under the
impact of serving in the Israeli army in
Lebanon in 1982, joined Yesh Gvul
(There is a Limit), and subsequently
refused to serve in the occupied ter-
ritories in 1988. All three of these per-
sons are involved in the field of educa-
tion.
The second panel’s topic was entitl-
ed: Convening the International Peace
Conference in Accordance with UN
General Assembly Resolution 43/176:
Implications for Israel and the US of
the Proclamation of the State of
Palestine, the Palestinian Peace In-
Itiative and the Intifada. The panelists
were Mahdi Abdul Hadi, founder of
the Arab Though Forum in Jerusalem;
Margaret McCormack, political con-
sultant and former congressional aide;
and Mattityhu Peled, chairman of the
Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian
Peace.
Discussions on these topics were
supplemented by concrete, action-
oriented workshops. The first day’s
workshops were on the overall theme of
mobilizing public awareness in North
America, addressing specific concerns
such as:
- mobilizing support for Palestinian
children as they are the particular vic-
tims of the Israeli occupation, both in
terms of physical abuse and deprivation
of education; this workshop stressed
the need to work for permanent
reopening of the schools;
- mobilizing support for Palestinian
health services as one way of suppor-
ting the development of a Palestinian
infrastructure leading to a future in-
dependent state:
- mobilizing support for victims of
punitive violations of the 4th Geneva
Convention, i.e., those who have suf-
fered as a result of the Israeli policies of
expulsion, house demolition, summary
punishment, killing, etc; this workshop
also focused on the situation of
prisoners, torture and the unjust taxes
levied on Palestinians under occupa-
tion;
- mobilizing concern for Palestinian
workers and their conditions of work;
this workshop emphasized the impor-
tance of establishing firmer relations
between Palestinian and North
26
American union movements, interven-
ing when Palestinian workers’ rights
are violated; it issued a condemnation
of the Histadrut’s discriminatory
policies.
The above-mentioned workshops
benefited from presentations by
Palestinians involved in labor organiz-
ing and in the field of health in the oc-
cupied territories, namely Hani Mohd
of the Progressive Trade Union Labor
Front, and Dr. Umayeh Kamash of the
Medical Relief Committees.
A special resolution was adopted at
the symposium on the Israeli violation
of the labor rights of Palestinians under
occupation. Special note was taken of
the policy recently introduced by Israeli
Defense Minister Rabin, banning
Palestinians from the West Bank and
Gaza from entering Israel without ob-
taining a special identity card which is
refused to anyone with a record of
political activity against the occupa-
tion, for this in effect denies the right to
work in Israel to the majority of the
West Bank and Gaza population. The
resolution also noted the dehumaniza-
tion involved in the Petah Tikva
municipality’s building of a fenced
compound on the edge of Tel Aviv for
confining Palestinian laborers who are
seeking work.
The workshops on the second day of
the symposium addressed questions
related to coordinating action in North
America for the purpose of organizing
people-to-people campaigns, twinning
projects and other means of increasing
public awareness of the situation in the
occupied territories.
CUT BACK US DOLLARS TO
ISRAEL
On the background of these panels
and workshops, the symposium ratified
a declaration and plan of action which
affirmed «the inalienable rights of the
Palestinian people in conformity with
all relevant UN resolutions, including
the right to self-determination without
external interference, the right to
establish an independent state under the
leadership of the PLO, and the right of
return,» and calling for an immediate
end to the occupation. While affirming
support to the intifada, the declaration
called for an extraordinary session of
the UN General Assembly to discuss
«the protection of the Palestinian peo-
ple in the occupied territory... and
dispatch an interim international
peacekeeping force to replace the Israeli
occupying forces in order to provide
protection and ensure respect for the
human and political rights of the
Palestinian people of the West Bank
and Gaza.» The resolution expressed
special concern about «the role that
racism, both de facto and de jure, plays
in the situation and treatment of
Palestinians inside and outside the 1967
occupied territory. We are particularly
alarmed at the recently uncovered
Israeli Ministry of Interior document
directing the implementation of the
1986 (Markowitz) government com-
mission report which calls for the
eradication of tens of so-called
‘unregistered’ Palestinian villages
within the green line.»
Two political campaigns stand out
from among the various forms of ac-
tion decided upon by the NGOs. The
first is entitled Peace in Palestine and
Israel in 1989. It involves gathering a
quarter of a million signatures to be
presented to the US Congress and
White House on November 15th, call-
ing on the US to recognize the PLO and
the State of Palestine, the convention of
an international peace conference and
immediate steps to end the occupation.
The second campaign is by its nature
more long-term. It is a project aimed at
having the US government reduce aid
to Israel by an amount equal to the sum
expended by Israel to:
- maintain the belligerent occupation of
the West Bank and Gaza, including
East Jerusalem;
- maintain and expand settlements;
- violate Palestinians’ human rights;
- maintain Ansar III;
- develop and stockpile an unmonitored
nuclear arsenal; and
- provide military and financial aid to
anti-democratic states, specifically
South Africa, Chile, Haiti, Guatemala.
The idea of this campaign is first to
embark on research and education that
makes it clear to the US public how the
US funds the occupation and also the
link between US foreign aid and the
decreased funding to domestic social
programs. Subsequently, Congress will
be lobbied to reduce aid to Israel in ac-
cordance with the above-listed criteria ®
Democratic Palestine, August 1989 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 34
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- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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