Porto Alegre – Nabil Shaath, the Foreign Relations commissioner of Fatah and the representative of the president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Mahmoud Abbas, stated that he would like the World Social Forum Free Palestine to establish a permanent civil society committee in support of the Palestinian cause. Shaath participated on Thursday (29) in the first plenary on the event, which took place in Porto Alegre.
“Maybe somebody I like very much will accept to preside this committee. Someone called [Luiz Inácio] Lula da Silva,” pointed out the Palestinian, in reference to the former president of Brazil. “If he became an international spokesperson for peace, I am sure that it would help very much, but that is not in our hands,” he said.
To strengthen the idea of a permanent forum, Shaath gave an example to show the importance of popular support in international questions. “I want to recall that Apartheid in South Africa was defeated through the people and not government officials. The people of the whole world showed themselves against that racist and segregationist regime.”
Shaath came to the event in the place of Abbas, who is in Nova York for a United Nations (UN) General Assembly vote on whether Palestine will or will not become a member state at the organisation.
“I believe we will get the votes. That will grant us international support and will allow us participation in international organisations, like the International Court of Justice and the International Penal Court,” he finished off.
Regarding peace talks with Israel, the Palestinian representative pointed out that they have been stunted due to the non-implementation, on the Israeli side, of the terms agreed on by both parties.
“Every Israeli prime minister wants to start [negotiations] from scratch,” he complained. [Binyamim] Netanyahu has new conditions now. He wants us to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, despite the 1.5 million Christian and Muslim Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. We recognize Israel as a state, but not a Jewish state,” he said.
“He also wants us to accept that Israeli soldiers remain for another 100 years after we become independent, occupying most of the country. We cannot accept that. That is not part of the agreement, and negotiating under these conditions is impossible. This harms our people and allows Israel to create new settlements, expropriate more land, drink our water. We negotiate land for peace and they take over the land while we negotiate peace,” he said.
Panel
Arnaldo Carrilho, the former Brazilian ambassador to Palestine, also participated in the plenary and pointed out the relevance of problems faced by the Palestinians. “The Palestinian question is number one in the Middle East,” he said.
Naser Al-Rayyes, a lawyer and activist at the Al-Haq organisation, complained about the non-compliancy of Israel with international laws. “Israel has violated all terms of the Geneva Convention,” he said.
Sahar Francis, a director at Addameer organisation, who is fighting for the rights of prisoners, stated that Israel has already made over 700,000 political prisoners since 1967. “Israel considers all kinds of [pro-Palestine] manifestations a crime,” he said. “Prisoners have already died in chairs due to aggression or negligence to health standards,” he said.
Charlote Kate, a member of the Palestine Solidarity Network of Canada, pointed out the incapacity of the international community to make penal laws be applied to Israel and criticised the US position regarding occupation. “The support of the United States has been granting conditions for Israeli violations,” she said.
*Translated by Mark Ament
