Ramallah, 29-11-06: The period since last year's International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People has witnessed a drastic deterioration of the situation in Palestine. Political and economic sanctions imposed on the democratically-elected Palestinian Authority following landmark elections in January 2006 plunged the PA into fiscal crisis and pushed the Palestinian people over the brink of humanitarian disaster, deepening already-high levels of poverty and unemployment.
In the Gaza Strip, this has been exacerbated by the renewed outbreak of violent conflict following Israel's re-invasion of the Strip on 28 June 2006, in which over 500 Palestinians have been killed to date. More than half of those killed were civilians, including women and children. In the West Bank, the ongoing construction of both the Separation Wall and illegal Israeli settlements has seen the continued confiscation of Palestinian land, greater restrictions on the movement of Palestinians within and outside the West Bank, and the deepening geographical fragmentation of the West Bank, all undermining the possibility of achieving an independent, contiguous, and viable Palestinian state in any future negotiations process.
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, Parliamentarian and General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, emphasized that the most urgent challenge facing the Palestinian Authority in overcoming the current critical situation is the formation of a national unity government to dismantle the economic and political blockade against the Palestinian people.
Yet the current situation cannot be overcome by the efforts of Palestinians alone. There must be concerted, concrete action taken by members of the international community to seek a just and permanent end to Israel's occupation, which will enter its 40th year in June 2007. Dr. Barghouthi stated that the most effective way to re-kindle this process lies in an international peace conference to bring a solution to the conflict back to its basis in international law and United Nations resolutions, leading to an end to the occupation, and to the creation of an independent, sovereign, democratic Palestinian state on the basis of a two state solution.
----------
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People was initiated by the UN General Assembly in 1977, when it called for the annual observance of 29 November to mark the day when, in 1947, it adopted Resolution 181. [1] This resolution provided for the establishment in Palestine of a "Jewish State" and an "Arab State", with Jerusalem as a corpus separatum under a special international regime.
The International Day of Solidarity has traditionally provided an opportunity for the international community to focus its attention on the fact that the question of Palestine is still unresolved and that the Palestinian people are yet to attain their inalienable rights as defined by the General Assembly, namely, the right to self-determination without external interference, the right to national independence and sovereignty and the right to return to their homes and property from which they had been displaced. [2]
[1] United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II): Future Government of
Palestine. 29 November 1947. http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/7f0af2bd897689b785256c330061d253!OpenDocument.
[2] UNISPAL: Division for Palestinian Rights. 31 October 2006. International
Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People: Information Note. Http://unispal.un.org.