Press Releases

What Gaza organizations say about the Geneva initiative

BADIL Resource Center
11 December 2003
For Immediate Release

To promote informed discussion on Palestinians' hopes for a peace agreement, BADIL has been publishing Palestinian views of the Geneva understandings. See previous reports on www.badil.org.  The following is an unofficial translation of a statement from a group of organizations in the Gaza Strip:

 

Unions, Syndicates, National and Popular Organizations in the Gaza Strip consider that the act of signing the Geneva 'Understandings' has caused serious harm to the Palestinian national consensus, especially in the shadow of Israel's brutal attacks against our Palestinian people, including assassinations, collective arrests, house demolitions, land sweeping, uprooting of trees, and the confiscation of thousands of dunums of land to build the apartheid separation wall.  We affirm the following:

 

  • --Rejection of the Geneva 'Understandings', the process and its substance, in general and in detail, because of its harmful consequences to our national consensus;
  • --The national consensus, represented by the right of return, self-determination, and the establishment of a fully sovereign Palestinian state are not subject to interpretation, but goals that everyone must work hard at to achieve. This is the last will and testament of the Martyrs and the principles of the PLO;
  • --The Right of Return is sacred. No one can compromise this right. It is an individual and collective right embodied in international law (UNGA Resolution 194) which Israel pledged to implement as a condition for its acceptance as a member of the   United Nations;
  • --Participation in the signing ceremony for the Geneva 'Understandings' or participation in any of its activities is to be considered as normalization with the Israeli occupation, which is a violation of the resolutions of the relevant unions and syndicates. All members are requested to carry out their legal obligations concerning this issue;

 

We support a comprehensive and just peace that is based on international law and UN resolutions.  We take upon ourselves and promise to our people, the Martyrs, the injured, and our heroic prisoners to uphold the national consensus and remain faithful to our struggle until full liberation.

 

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Union of Palestinian Contractors   

Syndicate of Dentists - Palestine

Syndicate of Veterinarians

Syndicate of Supportive Engineering Professions

Syndicate of Supportive Medical Professions

League of Palestinian Journalists

Society of Palestinian Social Workers

General Union of Palestinian Teachers

Society of Palestinian Artists

Syndicate of Palestinian Physicians

General Union of Palestinian Workers Syndicate

Syndicate of Palestine Lawyers

Syndicate of Palestinian Agricultural Engineers

Society of Accountants and Legal Audits

Syndicate of Palestinian Pharmacists

Society of University Graduates

Union of Palestinian Writers

General Union of Palestinian Women

Palestinian Nursery Syndicate

Syndicate of Palestine Engineers

 

(issued 23/11/03)