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BADIL Resource Center
for Palestinian Residency and refugee Rights
For Immediate Release
| No.
(E/03/04) |
21 January 2004 |
Most Palestinians have no
representation and no voice, Dr. Karma Nabulsi told two community meetings
organized by BADIL in Dheisheh and Al-Amari camps, West Bank on 15 and 17
January.
Dr. Nabulsi said the exile Palestinian community is not consulted on
initiatives such as the Geneva Accords nor did they have any role in the
1996 Palestinian elections. She called for an inclusive process and told her
audience that Palestinians in the 1967 Occupied Territories should reject
further elections if the exile community is not included.
There is external pressure, she said, to fragment the Palestinian people and
make its leadership unrepresentative. To remedy this, Dr. Nabulsi said that
the people have to pressure and encourage the PLO leadership to represent
all Palestinians, and this can best be done through civic structures that
should be created by the people themselves.
The fragile political structures that exist are under siege, so we need to
become unified. This can be done by connecting through structures that link
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and those outside. It won't be
easy, she said, but there is a need to create civic structures in the exile
community where they can better communicate with their legitimate leadership
and each other. As a first step, the exile community must be asked what
mechanisms they need in order to improve communications, and what are the
important issues they would like to raise with the leadership.
Elections, said Dr. Nabulsi, are only one aspect of healthy democratic life.
Democracy means participation in shaping the national political agenda, and
behind elections are meetings, associations, unions, organization, etc.
Civil society means the real world in which we function, she said. "I am a
refugee, an activist, a party member, a unionist, a woman, a writer. There
are a 100 ways I participate."
All Palestinians, inside and out, have the right to participate and be
represented, but the most recent peace plans were drawn up without
consulting the Palestinians outside. There should be a debate about these
initiatives amongst the communities concerned. Moreover, if elections were
held today they would be counter productive, as they would deny a voice to
the millions of Palestinians in exile.
Dr. Nabulsi was a PLO representative in Beirut, the United Nations, Tunis,
and London in the 1970s and 1980s and was an advisory member of the
Palestinian delegation to the Washington peace talks between 1991-993. She
is currently a Research Fellow and lecturer at Nuffield College, Oxford
University. Dr. Nabulsi's paper "Popular Sovereignty, Collection Rights,
Participation and Crafting Durable Solutions for Palestinian Refugees" was
presented at BADIL's Expert Forum in May 2003 at Ghent University is
available in English and Arabic print versions and in English on BADIL's web
site www.badil.org/Campaign/Expert_Forum.htm For further information contact: BADIL, P.O. Box 728, Bethlehem
Tel/Fax: 970-2-274-7346 or resource @badil.org
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