"End the Occupation!" Symposium at United Nations

The United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene a symposium entitled “End the Occupation!” for international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) at UN headquarters in New York September 23-24, 2002. Leaders of NGO’s will come from nearly every continent to share their views and to consider alternative strategies in the establishment of peace with justice in the Middle East. Among the panelists that have accepted the invitation to speak are:

• Ms. Hanan Ashrawi, Secretary-General of IFTAH
• Mr. Ghassan Andoni, Executive Director of the Palestinian Centre for approchement between People (PCR)
• Ms. Mercia Andrews, President of the South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO)
• Ms. Huwaida Araf, Chairperson of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM)
• Ms. Phyllis Bennis, Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies
• Mr. Juan Carretero Ibañez, Secretary-General of the Organization of Solidarity among the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL)
• Mr. Pierre Galand, Chairman of the European Coordinating Committee for NGOs on the Question of Palestine (ECCP)
• Ms. Terry Greenblatt, Director of Bat Shalom
• Mr. Jeff Halper, Coordinator of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions
• Ms. Yehudit Har'el, Gush Shalom
• Ms. Nadia Hijab, The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
• Ms. Jessica Montell, Executive Director of B'Tselem
• Mr. John Rempel, Mennonite Central Committee
• Mr. Adam Shapiro, The International Solidarity Movement (ISM)

This meeting provides an extraordinary opportunity for MENUM and MFSA members to share with other NGO’s our concerns and convictions. There will be plenary presentations by scholars and Middle East leaders as well as a variety of workshops. Similar symposia meetings in the past have included a final statement written by the NGO’s to the UN Secretary General, urging the Security Council and the General Assembly to take actions in support of the Palestinians.

The provisional program is available on the web site of the Division for Palestinian Rights at http://www.un.org/Depts/dpa/ngo/calendar.htm. For further information,contact the Division, United Nations Secretariat, Room S-3350, New York, NY 10017. Fax: (212) 963-4199, E-mail: kobayashiy@un.org, Web site: http://www.un.org/Depts/dpa/ngo.

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