UN: UN meeting on Palestine discusses role of Parliaments, civil society in advocating adherence to International Law

The panellists who took the floor today were Daniel Vischer, Member of the National Council of Switzerland; Julia Wickham, Coordinator of the Labour Middle East Council in London; Jeff Handmaker, Researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights in Utrecht; Bruce Gillette, Moderator of the Com...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inM2 Presswire p. 1
Format Newsletter
LanguageEnglish
Published Coventry Normans Media Ltd 10.03.2005
Subjects
Civil society
Committees
Construction
Councils
Human rights
Humanitarianism
International courts
International law
Military occupations
Palestinian people
Parliaments
Peace
Politics
Presbyterian churches
Prime ministers
Violence
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Summary:The panellists who took the floor today were Daniel Vischer, Member of the National Council of Switzerland; Julia Wickham, Coordinator of the Labour Middle East Council in London; Jeff Handmaker, Researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights in Utrecht; Bruce Gillette, Moderator of the Committee on Peacemaking for the 216^th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, United States; Mark Lance, Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University and Member of the Steering Committee of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, in Washington; Anne Massagee, Legal Researcher at Al-Haq - Law in the Service of Man in Ramallah; and Alioune Tine, Professor at the University of Dakar and Secretary-General of Rencontre Africaine pour la Defence des Droits de l'Homme in Dakar. BRUCE GILLETTE, Moderator of the Committee on Peacemaking for the 216^th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, United States, said since 1948, Presbyterian General Assemblies had repeatedly addressed the Middle East and particularly Israel and Palestine. The Presbyterian position had consistently been to affirm the right of Israel to exist as a sovereign State within secure, internationally recognized borders, and the right of the Palestinians to self-determination, including the right to establishment of a neighbouring independent, sovereign State, towards the end of establishing a just and durable peace. The ongoing violence in the Middle East had been a grave concern for the Presbyterian Church, particularly as it had escalated to a historic degree during the past four years, since the recent Intifada was sparked. Reiterating concern for the deaths of civilians on all sides in that and other conflicts, the Church had condemned terrorism at the 216^th General Assembly in 2004. MARK LANCE, Professor of Philosophy at GeorgetownUniversity and Member of the Steering Committee of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, WashingtonD.C., said that as a result of the continued construction of the apartheid wall, the possibility of a meaningful PalestinianState, indeed of a functional Palestinian society even, was rapidly disappearing. Current negotiations promised no serious discussion of the crucial issues of occupation, focusing merely on how to achieve a "calm" within which the United States and Israel could continue the institutionalization of their respective occupations. It would, indeed, be optimistic even to expect Palestinians to achieve managerial control over their emerging network of Bantustans. It was more likely that negotiations would break down and return to earlier levels of violence with the familiar results for both Israeli and Palestinian societies.