São Paulo – From November 28th to December 1st, Porto Alegre will host the World Social Forum Free Palestine. The event, a thematic edition of the World Social Forum, will include debates, lectures, and cultural activities championing the creation of a Palestinian State and the rights of refugees.
On the first day there will be an opening concert and a march on the streets of the city. The next days will feature conferences on five thematic sections: self-determination and the right to return; human rights and international law; BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel) and fighting strategies; for a world free from walls and racism; and social movements and modes of resistance. Complementary activities will include film screenings, book launches and a photograph exhibition.
According to Emir Mourad, the secretary general to the Arab Palestinian Federation of Brazil (Fepal), which is one of the event’s organizers, the goal is to call for effective actions in favour of Palestinian’s rights. “The forum will have international repercussion by ratifying Brazil’s support to the creation of a Palestinian state, which is crucial in order for us to achieve the peace Palestinians deserve. Besides, it will draw attention to the human rights issue,” Mourad.
On the event’s last day, social movements will assemble to propose measures for after the forum. Soraya Misleh, the communications director at the Institute of Arab Culture (Icarabe), who is a member of the Movimento Palestina para Todos e Todas (Movement Palestine for All Men and Women) and one of the organizers of the event, stated that one of the actions to be taken is a boycott to Israel. “This forum is a way to show solidarity, enforce refugees’ rights to return, and present (pro-Palestinian) campaigns such as BDS,” said Misleh.
According to Mourad, the World Social Forum Free Palestine is one of several thematic events held in between the editions of the World Social Forum. The last edition was held in Dakar, Senegal, in February 2011.
On that occasion, the Palestinian delegation requested that the event be held in Egypt or Tunisia, but the governments of these countries turned down the proposal because of Arab Spring protests. “At that time, members of CUT (a Brazilian workers union) proposed that Brazil host the event,” says Mourad.
The Fepal secretary general is expecting the Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) president Mahmoud Abbas to attend, and said their participation helps raise international community awareness of the need to defend the rights of Palestinian people.
The Brazilian presidential office has neither confirmed nor denied the president’s attendance. The Lula Institute claimed to have no information on the former president’s attending the forum.
The Palestinian ambassador to Brasília, Ibrahim Alzeben, informed that the CUT has delivered an invitation to Abbas, and that only reason the PNA president will not attend is if he has to go to the United Nations. The country is bidding for the UN’s recognition as a non-member state.
Service
World Social Forum Free Palestine
November 28 to December 1 in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul)
For additional information go to www.wsfpalestine.net/pt-br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
