FREE PALESTINE !

20.5.01; Israleli- Paestinian conference in Los Angeles; is there any hope for peace? What can we do?
print article

A short report about an Israeli-Palestinian conference in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA);
One of those events that the media, both Israeli and American would not likely to talk about; within the midst of fighting in the Middle East, Palestinian, Israeli and American Jewish intellectuals, met today in order to discuss the developments of the last few weeks. There was a unanimous agreement as to the Apartheid Israeli occupation and some learned analysis of the last figures of Settlements extensions, of Israeli means of occupation, and of the necessary steps needed to renew any hope of peace negotiations. Rashid Khalidi (Chicago University) made 6 conditions, the first among them the necessity for the Israelis to accept the International Law, referring to the UN resolutions. It is important to note (for the sake of the Israeli paranoid public) that none of the Palestinians talking, among them Khalidi, Mahmud Ibrahim (Cal Poly Pomona University), Salam Al-Marayati (Muslim Public Affairs), May Seikaly (Wayne State University) and others did not attack the very existence of the state of Israel. The demand was for a just peace that would offer the Palestinians a respectable life on the side of the Israelis. The agreement seemed to be also unanimous in the question of the Israeli (Barak) complete failure to walk courageously the needed steps in order to reach a viable peace treaty between the two nations. A mutual call made by both sides turned to the US with a request of intervention to force the Israeli aggression to stop, to freeze all settlements, and then to force the sides into the renewal of negotiations (though on a different basis than the one that conducted the Oslo agreements!). Almost all Palestinians present blamed the Palestinian authority in corruption and undemocratic behavior, supported actively by the Israeli government. As to the Israeli side, Ella Shohat (City University of New York) called the Israeli public to start refusing to serve in an occupation army, and Gila Svirsky (Coalition of Women for a Just Peace, Women in Black) called the American and Israeli public to join the active groups that protest the occupation, especially at such a time when so many Palestinians are under a siege of months, without food and basic human needs. The Women in Black group has organized an international protest day to support the Palestinian cause and protest against the Israeli policy in the occupied territories, planned to June 8th. For details turn to Gila Svirsky in Bat Shalom E- address (100264.1401 [at] compuserve.com ).
It is important to emphasize that both sides called publicly to renew dialogues between Israelis and Palestinians as a means to an end, i.e., the end of the occupation and the evacuation of the settlements. Ken yehi ratzon.