Democratic Palestine : 35 (ص 34)
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- Democratic Palestine : 35 (ص 34)
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HHH 1 | | |
The third UN European regional Non-Governmental Organizations
(NGO) symposium on the question of Palestine, and the sixth UN
international NGO meeting on the question of Palestine, were held in
Vienna, Austria, between August 28th and September Ist.
The European NGO symposium,
which was organized by the Committee
on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People, at-
tracted over 100 NGOs. Among the
speakers who addressed the symposium
were Mikko Lohikoski, chairman of
the European Coordinating Committee
for NGOs on the question of Palestine;
Jean-Marie Lambert, executive director
of the International Committee for
NGOs on the question of Palestine; and
Yasir Abed Rabbo, member of the
PLO Executive Committee.
Among the proposals presented to
the two-day syfnposium were a peace
march with international participation
in Israel and the occupied Palestinian
territories, and an international student
strike in solidarity with Palestinian
schools, in an effort to pressure the
Israeli government to reopen these
schools.
The plenary sessions touched on the
issues of the intifada, the international
peace conference and implementa-
tion of Palestinian self-determination
with emphasis on the role of Europe.
REGIONAL SYMPOSIUM
FINAL DECLARATION
In the final declaration issued by the
symposium,the intifada was posited as
the main factor behind recent
developments which help towards
achievement of the goal of self-
determination for the Palestinian peo-
ple. Welcoming the results of the
November 1988 PNC and the initiation
of the PLO-US dialogue, the sym-
posium expressed hope that «the US
government will not use this dialogue as
a reason to delay the preparations for
the international peace conference...»
34
The declaration appreciated the
recognition of the State of Palestine by
some European states and called upon
others to follow their example. The
symposium participants consider that
«Israel’s continued refusal to
acknowledge the most elementary
rights of the Palestinian people, in-
cluding their right to self-determination
and right to return to their homeland, is
ultimately contrary to the best interests
of Israel.» Shamir’s plan was labeled
an attempt to «cover Israel’s illegal oc-
cupation and intensified repression of
the intifada....» and accordingly judg-
ed «totally unacceptable.»
The symposium expressed deep con-
cern over the increased violations of
human rights in the occupied Palesti-
nian territories, and deplored «the
grossly inadequate measures to control
the violence of Jewish settlers.» The
declaration appealed to the Security
Council» to consider the deployment of
a UN peace-keeping force to safeguard
the physical security of the
inhabitants.»
WORKSHOPS
A series of workshops focused on the
principles and practical means for car-
rying out solidarity activities in dif-
ferent fields.
One workshop focused on Palesti-
nian trade with Europe: how the NGOs
could assist in developing trade links
between Europe and Palestinian pro-
ducers and exporters. Among other
things, it was decided that finance for
income generating projects in the ter-
ritories should take the form of direct
investment rather than grants; this
would confer a considerable degree of
protection on these projects.
A second workshop bore the title:
EEC and Palestine - Towards a More
Constructive Policy. This group
discussed public information, coopera-
tion, twinning arrangements and lob-
bying activities to influence public
opinion and government positions to be
more favorable towards the question of
Palestine.
A third workshop discussed the in-
volvement of Jewish communities in
Europe, nothing that many Jewish in-
dividuals and organizations were active
in the peace movement, but the Jewish
communities as such were not. There
was great diversity of opinion on this
issue, but it was agreed that the starting
point was promoting «dialogue with
and within Jewish communities on the
issue of the international peace con-
ference.»
The workshop on building the
Palestinian education system had the
advantage of being attended by five
educators from the West Bank and
Gaza. A review of the state of Palesti-
nian education under occupation con-
cluded with assessing the new reality:
«Under the impact of this enforced
‘school vacation’ the students went
through a new socialization and
cooperation process that confronted
educators with a new kind of student
population: A new understanding of
self-reliance and rejection of dusty
hierarchies. And the educators found
that the previous curricula had too
much ‘book wisdom’ and not enough
societal relevance... Out of the old and
mew experiences, the demand for a new
Palestinian educational system evolved.
And there are concrete proposals
towards such a new comprehensive and
specifically Palestinian curriculum...»
The workshop participants discussed
how international cooperation, spon-
sorship and volunteers could contribute
to and provide a form of security for
local Palestinian efforts in the educa-
tional field. Among the workshop’s
recommendations was that established
partnerships between Israeli and
Democratic Palestine, October 1989 - هو جزء من
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