Committee on the Inalienable Rights

of the Palestinian People

303^rd Meeting (PM)

Palestinian rights committee reviews recent middle east

 

Diplomatic initiatives, elects rapporteur

 

The Observer of Palestine today voiced hope that upcoming diplomatic initiatives would finally, after many decades, advance the birth of a Palestinian State, as the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People reviewed recent developments in the Middle East Situation and elected a new Rapporteur.

Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer for Palestine, said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was active in good faith negotiations with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and would participate in the upcoming international meeting in November in Washington, D.C., provided that it was based on the Road Map, the Arab peace initiative, Security Council resolutions, and the Madrid initiative.

Unfortunately, he said, the situation on the ground was still desperate in the occupied Palestinian territories, with the Israeli occupying authorities continuing to kill Palestinian civilians, including women and children.  That trend had been going on for a long time, and indications were that this month would be no exception.

Regarding the illegal confiscation of land and the expansion of settlements, he said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) had reported that the number of settlers was increasing daily by about one and one half busloads.  Israel was also continuing the illegal construction of the separation wall.

There were also still hundreds of checkpoints and obstacles restricting movement in the West Bank, he continued.  In the first week of Ramadan, tens of thousands of Palestinians, and, on Fridays, sometimes hundreds of thousands, tried to pray in the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and were turned away at the checkpoints.  Attacks in the form of bombardments also continued against civilians.

Surveying other developments, Committee Chairman Paul Badji of Senegal noted United States President George W. Bush’s support for the meeting in Washington, D.C.  He also described the 29 August meeting of the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, including the question of Palestine.

In addition, he described the United Nations International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace, held at the European Parliament in Brussels on 30 and 31 August 2007 under the theme “Civil Society and parliamentarians working together for peace in the Middle East”.  The opening meeting was attended by 470 persons, who represented 143 organizations, with representatives of 4 intergovernmental organizations, 12 United Nations agencies and bodies and 11 media organizations present as observers.

He said participants at the Conference discussed many aspects of civil society support for a just and peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, leading towards the Steering Committee’s preparation of a call to action, which is still in the process of finalization due to numerous amendments.  A full Conference report will also be issued in due course.

The Conference, he said, had generated some misperceptions which were countered by the Committee’s note of 22 August distributed to the Secretariat, which stated unequivocally that the Committee and its activities were not anti-Israeli, as it fully supported a two-State solution to the conflict.  It conducted conferences, such as the one in Brussels, to carry out its mandate to promote the rights of the Palestinian people.

Also today, Saviour Borg, the Permanent Representative of Malta, was elected Rapporteur of the Committee, by acclamation.  He rose to thank members of the Committee for electing him.

The Committee for the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will meet again at a time to be announced.

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For information media • not an official record