[E-rundbrief] Info 822 - Bilin Non-Violent Resistance Conference 2009

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 822 - The Fourth Bil’in International Conference on
Non-Violent Resistance under the name of Bassem Abu Rahma, April 22-24,
2009 (Palestine/ Westbank), Closing Statement, April 27.2009.

Bad Ischl, 27.4.2009

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Closing statement of the fourth Bil’in International Conference on
Non-Violent Resistance
Posted on: April 27, 2009 |

The Fourth Bil’in International Conference on Non-Violent Resistance, in
honor of Basem Abu Rahme

April 22-24, 2009

As we conclude our conference today, we remember our friend and fellow
in struggle, Bassem Abu Rahma, who was killed by the Israeli army last
Friday during the weekly peaceful demonstration. Our hearts and prayers
go out to his family and we wish them peace in these hard times. Our
thoughts and prayers are also with Tristan Anderson and his family.
Tristan, an American solidarity activist, was shot and seriously injured
by the Israeli army last month while he was visiting Ni’lin village.

The Fourth Bil’in Conference for Non-Violent Resistance is held this
year at a critical stage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. As Israeli
violence and oppression against the Palestinian people to force it into
submission has intensified, and an extremist Israeli government ascended
to power, the Palestinian leadership is unacceptably divided and weakened.

Palestinians in Gaza are still suffering from the impact of the barbaric
Israeli attack on them in Operation Cast Lead and the inhumane blockade
imposed on the Strip for years now. In the West Bank, the Israeli
authorities have intensified its ethnic cleansing efforts especially in
the Jerusalem area, through house evictions, systematic killings,
detentions, settlement building and the construction of the Apartheid
Wall. Through an elaborate control system of more than 600 military
checkpoints and hundred of military orders of house demolitions, land
confiscation and blockade, Israel is actively creating facts on the
ground that shall render any peaceful settlement of the conflict impossible.

Facing this painful reality, the Palestinian people must continue and
develop their popular resistance to protect their basic rights to life
and freedom and realize their aspirations of a peaceful future, like the
rest of the world.

The participants of the Fourth Bil’in Conference for Non-Violent
Resistance are committed to the rights of the Palestinian people
through: supporting and promoting popular forms of resistance throughout
the occupied Palestinian territories, encouraging the Palestinian
leadership and civil society to assume a more active role in the popular
resistance movement, promoting the culture of resistance and the
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel,
unifying the Palestinian people geographically and politically through
involving Palestinians the Gaza Strip in the popular movement and
helping overcome the blockade and isolation, and raising the awareness
of the daily realities of Palestinian suffering under the occupation
through field visits.

The participants of the Conference emphasize the importance of the
popular resistance as an effective strategy to resist oppression.
Recently, several popular resistance campaigns throughout the occupied
Palestinian territories have been launched or expanded. The participants
discussed the developments in Ni’lin, Al-Ma’sara, the Jordan Valley,
Southern Hebron and Bil’in as models of effective popular resistance.
This is complemented by important developments in the BDS movement on
the international level. In France and Canada, law suits have been filed
against those who benefit from the occupation and settlements. The New
York-based boycott campaign against settlement-builder, Lev Leviev, has
spread to the UK and Norway.

Based on the discussion in the Conference and the workshops, the
participants have decided to adopt the following unifying strategies as
a basis for the work on the popular resistance movement:

· Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel (BDS)

1. Holding organizing conferences within the different regions active in
BDS to coordinate BDS campaigns and initiatives.

2. Based on the resolution adopted by the World Social Forum this past
January, it was decided to hold the Global BDS Day of Action on March 30
of each year, which also coincides with Land Day.

· Promoting legal accountability for war crimes

1. Intensifying the popular campaigns locally and internationally to
prosecute Israeli war criminals.

2. Coordinating between the Palestinian civil society and human rights
organizations in Europe and the US involved in prosecuting Israeli war
criminals.

· Spreading and supporting the popular nonviolent resistance

1. Creating a coordination committee including representatives of the
popular committees who attended the conference in order to facilitate
the implementation of the conclusions of the Bilín Annual conference on
Popular Resistance and to support the popular resistance.

2. Increasing the coordination between the Popular Committees.

3. Providing accessible data on the activities of the Palestinian
popular resistance movement.

4. Reaching out to media, focusing on success stories of the popular
resistance movement.

5. Sharing experiences and learning from other popular movements around
the world.

6. Differentiating between the role of the popular movement and that of
the Palestinian Authority political parties and factions.

· Building an international movement in solidarity with Palestine

1. Improving coordination of international civil society groups working
in solidarity with the popular nonviolent resistance, through
transversal initiatives like the working groups of the World Social
Forum for Palestine.

2. Strengthening communication, advocacy and lobbying capacity of the
solidarity movements focusing on respect of international law and human
rights in Palestine, and putting more pressure on foreign governments
and politicians.

3. Joining the BDS movement, promoting fare trade relationships with
Palestine, rejecting the upgrading of cooperation agreements between the
European Union and Israel and asking for suspension of such agreements
till Israel violates international law.

4. Pressing governments and parliaments worldwide to take a position
against the siege on Gaza, holding Israeli war criminals accountable in
international tribunals (including a Russell Tribunal for Palestine) and
highlighting the voice of Israeli anti-occupation groups who denounce
those crimes.

5. Empowering other international initiatives to: contrast arms trade
with Israel, protect Palestinian prisoners, promote twinning projects
with Palestinian towns/universities/refugee camps, send civilian peace
teams to the Occupied Territories and organize field visits of
politicians, lawyers, journalists.

The participants also demand the following:

· On the Palestinian level

1. Achieving national unity, which is a prerequisite for national
liberation.

2. Serious efforts by the Palestinian president and government to
implement the ruling of the International Court of Justice of July 9,
2004 and the subsequent UN General Assembly resolution.

3. Supporting the popular resistance movement by the Palestinian
leadership and officials and taking a firm stance against the
Judiaization and ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem as well as the expansion
of the settlements and the construction of the Apartheid Wall.

4. The endorsement by the Palestinian national factions of the popular
resistance, namely BDS movement.

· On the Israeli level

1. Strengthening the relations with Israel peace groups that join the
Palestinian popular resistance against the occupation and oppression.

2. Rejecting any and all forms of normalization and isolating those
involved in it.

· On the International level

1. Institutionalizing the relations between the Palestinian popular
resistance movement and international solidarity activists and inviting
more activists to join and support the movement.

2. Calling on all the international organizations, unions, peace
activists and civil society institutions to present the Palestinian
narrative as they witnessed first hand and combat the Israeli propaganda
that dehumanizes the Palestinian people.

Finally, the participants of the Conference decided that Bil’in
International Conference on Non-Violent Resistance will be held in April
of each year.

Source: http://palsolidarity.org/2009/04/6372

-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
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