BADIL

Palestinian Civil Society’s Strategic Position Paper for the Durban Review Conference, Geneva, 20 – 24 April 2009
A Document of the Palestinian BDS Campaign National Committee

Questo è un documento del comitato nazionale palestinese per il boicottaggio, disinvestimento ed il sanzionamento

Posición Estratégica de la Sociedad Civil Palestina para la Conferencia para la Revisión de Durban, Ginebra, 20 – 24 de abril de 2009. Un documento del Comité Nacional Palestino del Boicot, Desinversión y Sanciones

بعد أكثر من خمسين عامًا على النكبة الفلسطينيّة، قامت مجموعة من المثقّفين، الأكاديميّين والناشطين الفلسطينيّين، من مجالات مختلفة والتي تحمل وجهات نظر سياسية مختلفة، بالمبادرة إلى نصّ وثيقة توافقيّة تشمل رؤيا جماعيّة حول تصوّر الفلسطينيّين المواطنين في إسرائيل لوضعهم الجماعيّ. هذه الوثيقة، المعروفة بـِ "وثيقة حيفا"، هي مشروع بدأ عامَ 2002 تحت رعاية "مدى الكرمل - المركز العربيّ للدراسات الاجتماعيّة التطبيقيّة"، في مدينة حيفا. توخّى المشروع إنشاء منتدى لمواطنين فلسطنيين، من أوسع قاعدة اجتماعيّة وسياسيّة، نستطيع من خلالها تجاوز حدود سياسات القوّة، وتخطّي سقف الخطاب السياسي الحزبي الذي تفرضه هذه السياسات لمناقشة تصوّرنا للماضي والحاضر والمستقبل بحرّيّة - لا سيّما مستقبلنا ومكانتنا الجماعيّين في وطننا، والتحدّيات الرئيسة التي يواجهها مجتمعنا، وعلاقتنا بشعبنا وبأمّتنا وبدولة إسرائيل.

ضمّ هذا المشروع أفرادًا يمثلون طيفًاً واسعًا من وجهات النظر. ووثيقة حيفا هي نتاج التداولات الموسّعة لأعضاء هذه المجموعة ومناقشاتهم على امتداد سنوات عدّة، سواء أكان ذلك في ما بينهم فقط، أم كان أحيانًا مع آخرين من خارج المجموعة.

التقت الهيئة العامّة، التي تتضمّن جميع أفراد المجموعة، في نصابها الكامل نحو اثنتي عشرة مرّة. ودعونا، أحيانًا، متحدّثين خارجيّين، بمن فيهم أعضاء في الكنيست من الأحزاب العربيّة. أنشأت الهيئة العامة أربع مجموعات عمل تمحورت حول:

القضايا الاجتماعيّة الداخليّة
العلاقة بين المواطنين الفلسطينيّين ودولة إسرائيل
العلاقة بسائر أجزاء شعبنا الفلسطينيّ وبالأمّة العربيّة
هُويّتنا الوطنيّة

Over 50 years after the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, a group of Palestinian intellectuals, academics, and activists from different fields and political viewpoints has undertaken an effort to draft a consensual statement of a collective vision that Palestinian citizens in Israel articulate about themselves. The statement, known as "The Haifa Declaration" is a project begun in 2002 under the auspices of Mada al-Carmel – Arab Center for Applied Social Research, in Haifa. The project sought to create a forum for Palestinian Arab citizens from as broad a social and political base as possible, a forum in which we could go beyond the boundaries of power politics and the limitations imposed on political parties' discourse to freely discuss our vision of the past, present, and future – specifically, our collective future and status in our homeland, the major challenges facing our society, our relationship with our people, nation, and the state of Israel.

"On the tenth anniversary of its founding, Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel issued “The Democratic Constitution,” as a constitutional proposal for the state of Israel, based on the concept of a democratic, bilingual, multicultural state. This proposed constitution draws on universal principles and international conventions on human rights, the experiences of nations and the constitutions of various democratic states.

In recent years, Israeli groups have put forward several constitutions for the state of Israel. However, these proposals are distinguished by their lack of conformity to democratic principles, in particular the right to complete equality of all residents and citizens, and by their treatment of Arab citizens as if they were strangers in this land, where history, memory and collective rights exist only for Jewish people. It is no coincidence therefore that these proposals have been preoccupied with the question of, “Who is a Jew?” and have neglected the primary constitutional question of, “Who is a citizen?”

Thus, we decided to propose a democratic constitution, which respects the freedoms of the individual and the rights of all groups in equal measure, gives proper weight to the historical injustices committed against Arab citizens of Israel, and deals seriously with the social and economic rights of all. If “The Democratic Constitution” succeeds to underscore the enormous gap between it and the other proposals, and to create an objective public debate and dialogue on the nature of rights and freedoms in this country, then we will have taken an important step forward in the issues of racial equality, freedoms and social justice."

Document prepared by The National Committee for the Heads of the Arab Local Authorities in Israel

Excerpt:
...the project presented by this document is a continuation of our struggle towards crystallizing clear strategic future vision for the Arab Palestinians in Israel. The project aims at answering the question, "who are we and what do we want for our society?"

In order to obtain this goal, the future vision will be followed by tangible practical steps and a concrete action plan with specific goals. We recommend such document to be a public reference. This document includes all streams of the Arab society, as this vision is an independent Palestinian rhetoric. We hope this future vision would yield unity between different and sometimes contradicting viewpoints and beliefs on the basis of our national collective principles and interests.

The National Committee of the Local Arab Authorities in Israel is responsible for implementing this project, a project which was presented to the High Follow up Committee of the Arabs in Israel.