International Conference on Palestine and the Middle East in Istanbul
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
 
Other articles
 

After the comprehensive and lively discussion, the conference came, among other points, to the conclusion to support the principal demands of the national Palestinian struggle to have the right to found an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as capital, the right of return for all refugees and the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people.

 

01 June 2009 / International Bulletin / Issue: 82

Since the Zionist occupation of Palestine in 1948 until today, the struggle of the Palestinian people for its right of self-determination always was and still is on the agenda of the anti-imperialist forces of the world. Giving hope to the oppressed peoples with their militant struggle including women and even children by means of the different periods of the Intifada, Palestine has turned into a symbol of anti-imperialist resistance not bowing its head even under the hardest conditions.
To support the freedom struggle of Palestine and show solidarity not only in words but also in action is one of the first duties of every consequent anti-imperialist, revolutionary or communist organisation. During the brutal attack on Gaza launched in the end of last year, the urgent need of international solidarity again became obvious. In order to understand the reality of Palestine in a closer and deeper way and to mobilize the people for comprehensive, active and conscious support of Palestine, the Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People ( FHDD ) has been founded in Turkey/Northern Kurdistan some years ago. This initiative, which is committed to inform about the cause of Palestine, organize concrete solidarity and strengthen the brotherhood among the peoples of the Middle East, organized an International Conference on Palestine and the Middle East.
After an intensive period of preparation including workshops on different topics, the "International Conference on Palestine and the Middle East" took place on May 16-17, 2009 in Istanbul. It was joined by many international guests from Palestine, Lebanon, Netherlands and South Africa including Fawaz Hamad from the DFLP Foreign Relations' Committee and PFLP representative Leyla Halid. In addition to papers by delegates from our country, papers by delegates of the following foreign organisations have been presented to the participants during the two-day conference: DFLP, PFLP, HAMAS, Abna El Balad, El Awda Network of Palestinians, Solidarity Committee with Palestine South Africa, Group of Academic Boycott against Israel and Communist Party of Lebanon.
The conference was inaugurated with a minute of silence for the martyrs of the freedom struggle of Palestine followed by the opening speech by Fusun Bandir, chairwoman of the Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Speaking about the aim of the conference, she said "we did not only want to say something about Palestine or only collect some material support. We wanted to do something in order to get to know, to understand Palestine defending its lands." Furthermore, she stated that in the struggle in order to grow the solidarity with Palestine there is an academic gap, which they tried to fill. "Six months ago we established workshops. Our friends, who want to learn something for Palestine, came together". She also added that there are few sources thus they want to establish a Palestine Library.
The agenda of the conference consisted of 6 main topics, which are: 1) "The history of Zionism and Zionism today", 2) "Human rights violations in Palestine and the question of refugees", 3) "The national liberation struggle in Palestine, political organisations and its effect on the Middle East", 4) "Imperialism, the Greater Middle East Project and Palestine", 5) "Prospects of Solutions of the Palestinian Question" and 6) "Solidarity Campaigns in Turkey and the World and Proposals". At any of these 6 sessions a presentation of the according workshops and additional papers were presented, followed by questions and discussion.
On the first day, writer Peter Edel from the Netherlands as well as researcher and writer Ibrahim Okcuoglu, lecturer from the Nazim Hikmet Marxist Sciences Academy, Istanbul, joined the first block titled "The history of Zionism and Zionism today". The results of the workshop on this topic were presented by Muhammed Ismail Al Safin and moderation of this first session was made by the journalist Memik Horuz, who underlined the importance of the attacks against the Palestinians for the revolutionaries in Turkey.
Okcuoglu stated the Zionists are trying to "biologically construct a nation out of a community, which has no common culture, language, territory and physically unity", meanwhile Edel informed in his speech about the collaboration of the Zionists and the Nazis until 1939 and the years of foundation of the Israeli state. After saluting the participants, Al Safin informed about topics like "What is Zionism? The Reality of Zionism and Building of the Israeli state", saying that the concept of Zionism was born already in the 1860ies, going back to the name of the mountain Zion.
The second topic discussed was titled "Human rights violations in Palestine and the question of refugees". At this session, Asli Bingol presented the paper on behalf of the workshop saying among other things that 70% of the Palestinian population is refugees and described the attacks that Palestinians have to face. This discussion topic was also joined by the researcher and writer Mete Cubukcu as well as Anwar Yasin, member of the Committee of Hostages of Palestine and the Lebanon Communist Party, and Gassan Abbud, chairman of the Union of the Committees for the Right to Return and last but not least Dr. Yusuf Awdalla from the Health Committee Gaza, who participated by telephone.
In the 3rd session, PFLP representative Leyla Halid held the first speech talking on the PFLP and conveying the greetings of PFLP general secretary Ahmad Sa'adat. She also transmitted greetings from Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as "Jackal Carlos", who is imprisoned in France sentenced to lifelong. Halid talked about the Palestinian women participating within the struggle, and said: "The Palestinian women's struggle could not be separated from the general struggle; it is a part of it". Moreover, researcher and writer Mukaddes Erdogdu Celik spoke in this part about the relation of the revolutionary movement of Turkey with Palestine mentioning that the first relations are going back to the period after 1971, when Deniz Gezmis and his friends went to Palestine.
On the second day of the conference, "Imperialism, the Greater Middle East Project and Palestine" was discussed by the panellists Fawaz Hamad from the DFLP Foreign Relations Committee, Naser Ali, representative of the PFLP Political Office, former deputy Mehmet Bekaroglu and Musa Kilic on behalf of the workshop organised by the FHDD beforehand. Kilic spoke about the history, strategy and the aims of the USA´s Greater Middle East Project and characterized it as "project to drive away the people from their own culture and their own values". Naser Ali stated that this imperialist project has 5 pillars, among them the dependence of the Arabic governments on imperialism, regional collaboration, Zionism and the occupation of the region by the USA.
In the part "Prospects of Solutions of the Palestinian Question" the principal statement expressed by all panellists was that the only solution is resistance. Next to Leyla Halid of the PFLP, Usama Tamim of the DFLP, Nawaf Tekruni of HAMAS, Hatim Shahla of Abna El Balad and Alp Altinors, presenting the paper of the workshop carried out by the FHDD, spoke in this session. He said: "we have seen that the problem is an Israel problem, a problem of Jewish racism. And we came to the conclusion that as long as there is Jewish racist Zionist regime, there cannot be two states but only one Israeli state and some small Palestinian regions beside it. There are also other experiences in history; the racist regime of South Africa established small states within its own state and tried to imprison the black people in there like slaves. And today we see that as long as a Jewish racist Zionist regime exist, an independent Palestinian state with a) Jerusalem as its capital, b) complete state sovereignty, c) having an entirety of territory and d) guaranteeing the right of return to the refugees will never be possible."
Leyla Halid said "to accept Israel would be an offence against humanity and history. If we would strengthen it, it would grow like cancer. We have to take it out with its roots. (...) Resistance is the only solution." Finally, she made a call upon the peoples of Turkey and the world to boycott Israel like they did with South Africa in the past.
Usama Tamim underlined that they will not go without the foundation of the Palestinian state and drew attention to the fact, that this is the common opinion of all organisations.
In the last session of the Conference papers were presented by Ibrahim Al Baz (El Awda Network of Palestinians), Na'eem Jeenah (about the solidarity campaign in the Netherlands on behalf of the Solidarity Committee with Palestine South Africa), Rena Barakat (Group of Academic Boycott against Israel), Emin Dag (Foundation of Human Help) and Fusun Bandir (Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People). Bandir stated that we do not know enough about the Palestinian problem by saying: "if you ask the people about the problem of Palestine they say stone-throwing children or a people in struggle. But the problem of Palestine is more than that. We listed here to the speeches on the measures applied in the Middle East and Palestine in the framework of the Greater Middle East Project and Palestine; we also listened to our Palestinian guests. (...) Today Israel is accusing those, who defend the struggle of Palestine, as anti-Semites. No, we have never been anti-Semites. We are, as we have been also in the past, also on the side of the oppressed Jewish people. We will continue to be on the side of the Palestinian people with our position against Zionism."
After the comprehensive and lively discussion, the conference came, among other points, to the conclusion to support the principal demands of the national Palestinian struggle to have the right to found an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as capital, the right of return for all refugees and the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people.
 

 

Archive

 

2020
January
2019
December November
October September
August July
June May
April March
February

 

International Conference on Palestine and the Middle East in Istanbul
fc Share on Twitter
 

After the comprehensive and lively discussion, the conference came, among other points, to the conclusion to support the principal demands of the national Palestinian struggle to have the right to found an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as capital, the right of return for all refugees and the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people.

 

01 June 2009 / International Bulletin / Issue: 82

Since the Zionist occupation of Palestine in 1948 until today, the struggle of the Palestinian people for its right of self-determination always was and still is on the agenda of the anti-imperialist forces of the world. Giving hope to the oppressed peoples with their militant struggle including women and even children by means of the different periods of the Intifada, Palestine has turned into a symbol of anti-imperialist resistance not bowing its head even under the hardest conditions.
To support the freedom struggle of Palestine and show solidarity not only in words but also in action is one of the first duties of every consequent anti-imperialist, revolutionary or communist organisation. During the brutal attack on Gaza launched in the end of last year, the urgent need of international solidarity again became obvious. In order to understand the reality of Palestine in a closer and deeper way and to mobilize the people for comprehensive, active and conscious support of Palestine, the Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People ( FHDD ) has been founded in Turkey/Northern Kurdistan some years ago. This initiative, which is committed to inform about the cause of Palestine, organize concrete solidarity and strengthen the brotherhood among the peoples of the Middle East, organized an International Conference on Palestine and the Middle East.
After an intensive period of preparation including workshops on different topics, the "International Conference on Palestine and the Middle East" took place on May 16-17, 2009 in Istanbul. It was joined by many international guests from Palestine, Lebanon, Netherlands and South Africa including Fawaz Hamad from the DFLP Foreign Relations' Committee and PFLP representative Leyla Halid. In addition to papers by delegates from our country, papers by delegates of the following foreign organisations have been presented to the participants during the two-day conference: DFLP, PFLP, HAMAS, Abna El Balad, El Awda Network of Palestinians, Solidarity Committee with Palestine South Africa, Group of Academic Boycott against Israel and Communist Party of Lebanon.
The conference was inaugurated with a minute of silence for the martyrs of the freedom struggle of Palestine followed by the opening speech by Fusun Bandir, chairwoman of the Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Speaking about the aim of the conference, she said "we did not only want to say something about Palestine or only collect some material support. We wanted to do something in order to get to know, to understand Palestine defending its lands." Furthermore, she stated that in the struggle in order to grow the solidarity with Palestine there is an academic gap, which they tried to fill. "Six months ago we established workshops. Our friends, who want to learn something for Palestine, came together". She also added that there are few sources thus they want to establish a Palestine Library.
The agenda of the conference consisted of 6 main topics, which are: 1) "The history of Zionism and Zionism today", 2) "Human rights violations in Palestine and the question of refugees", 3) "The national liberation struggle in Palestine, political organisations and its effect on the Middle East", 4) "Imperialism, the Greater Middle East Project and Palestine", 5) "Prospects of Solutions of the Palestinian Question" and 6) "Solidarity Campaigns in Turkey and the World and Proposals". At any of these 6 sessions a presentation of the according workshops and additional papers were presented, followed by questions and discussion.
On the first day, writer Peter Edel from the Netherlands as well as researcher and writer Ibrahim Okcuoglu, lecturer from the Nazim Hikmet Marxist Sciences Academy, Istanbul, joined the first block titled "The history of Zionism and Zionism today". The results of the workshop on this topic were presented by Muhammed Ismail Al Safin and moderation of this first session was made by the journalist Memik Horuz, who underlined the importance of the attacks against the Palestinians for the revolutionaries in Turkey.
Okcuoglu stated the Zionists are trying to "biologically construct a nation out of a community, which has no common culture, language, territory and physically unity", meanwhile Edel informed in his speech about the collaboration of the Zionists and the Nazis until 1939 and the years of foundation of the Israeli state. After saluting the participants, Al Safin informed about topics like "What is Zionism? The Reality of Zionism and Building of the Israeli state", saying that the concept of Zionism was born already in the 1860ies, going back to the name of the mountain Zion.
The second topic discussed was titled "Human rights violations in Palestine and the question of refugees". At this session, Asli Bingol presented the paper on behalf of the workshop saying among other things that 70% of the Palestinian population is refugees and described the attacks that Palestinians have to face. This discussion topic was also joined by the researcher and writer Mete Cubukcu as well as Anwar Yasin, member of the Committee of Hostages of Palestine and the Lebanon Communist Party, and Gassan Abbud, chairman of the Union of the Committees for the Right to Return and last but not least Dr. Yusuf Awdalla from the Health Committee Gaza, who participated by telephone.
In the 3rd session, PFLP representative Leyla Halid held the first speech talking on the PFLP and conveying the greetings of PFLP general secretary Ahmad Sa'adat. She also transmitted greetings from Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as "Jackal Carlos", who is imprisoned in France sentenced to lifelong. Halid talked about the Palestinian women participating within the struggle, and said: "The Palestinian women's struggle could not be separated from the general struggle; it is a part of it". Moreover, researcher and writer Mukaddes Erdogdu Celik spoke in this part about the relation of the revolutionary movement of Turkey with Palestine mentioning that the first relations are going back to the period after 1971, when Deniz Gezmis and his friends went to Palestine.
On the second day of the conference, "Imperialism, the Greater Middle East Project and Palestine" was discussed by the panellists Fawaz Hamad from the DFLP Foreign Relations Committee, Naser Ali, representative of the PFLP Political Office, former deputy Mehmet Bekaroglu and Musa Kilic on behalf of the workshop organised by the FHDD beforehand. Kilic spoke about the history, strategy and the aims of the USA´s Greater Middle East Project and characterized it as "project to drive away the people from their own culture and their own values". Naser Ali stated that this imperialist project has 5 pillars, among them the dependence of the Arabic governments on imperialism, regional collaboration, Zionism and the occupation of the region by the USA.
In the part "Prospects of Solutions of the Palestinian Question" the principal statement expressed by all panellists was that the only solution is resistance. Next to Leyla Halid of the PFLP, Usama Tamim of the DFLP, Nawaf Tekruni of HAMAS, Hatim Shahla of Abna El Balad and Alp Altinors, presenting the paper of the workshop carried out by the FHDD, spoke in this session. He said: "we have seen that the problem is an Israel problem, a problem of Jewish racism. And we came to the conclusion that as long as there is Jewish racist Zionist regime, there cannot be two states but only one Israeli state and some small Palestinian regions beside it. There are also other experiences in history; the racist regime of South Africa established small states within its own state and tried to imprison the black people in there like slaves. And today we see that as long as a Jewish racist Zionist regime exist, an independent Palestinian state with a) Jerusalem as its capital, b) complete state sovereignty, c) having an entirety of territory and d) guaranteeing the right of return to the refugees will never be possible."
Leyla Halid said "to accept Israel would be an offence against humanity and history. If we would strengthen it, it would grow like cancer. We have to take it out with its roots. (...) Resistance is the only solution." Finally, she made a call upon the peoples of Turkey and the world to boycott Israel like they did with South Africa in the past.
Usama Tamim underlined that they will not go without the foundation of the Palestinian state and drew attention to the fact, that this is the common opinion of all organisations.
In the last session of the Conference papers were presented by Ibrahim Al Baz (El Awda Network of Palestinians), Na'eem Jeenah (about the solidarity campaign in the Netherlands on behalf of the Solidarity Committee with Palestine South Africa), Rena Barakat (Group of Academic Boycott against Israel), Emin Dag (Foundation of Human Help) and Fusun Bandir (Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People). Bandir stated that we do not know enough about the Palestinian problem by saying: "if you ask the people about the problem of Palestine they say stone-throwing children or a people in struggle. But the problem of Palestine is more than that. We listed here to the speeches on the measures applied in the Middle East and Palestine in the framework of the Greater Middle East Project and Palestine; we also listened to our Palestinian guests. (...) Today Israel is accusing those, who defend the struggle of Palestine, as anti-Semites. No, we have never been anti-Semites. We are, as we have been also in the past, also on the side of the oppressed Jewish people. We will continue to be on the side of the Palestinian people with our position against Zionism."
After the comprehensive and lively discussion, the conference came, among other points, to the conclusion to support the principal demands of the national Palestinian struggle to have the right to found an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as capital, the right of return for all refugees and the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people.