CrisesMagazine.org A weekly magazine on the global crises

During the past weekend (24-25 October), the Third International Conference in Bethlehem was held, in cooperation, this time, with OPGAI, the umbrella organization uniting a large number of Palestinian national movements as well as the Golan Heights resistance.

The contributing organizations will likely issue their own evaluations and conclusions in the next days, however, I would like to share some of my own, personal ones.

In general, that conference what a great success, even more so than the two previous ones. The presentations at the different panels were very interesting, even for a veteran activist like me; the speakers didn't repeat the obvious; the participation was bigger than expected (more than 400 persons), and the atmosphere was great. More important: though the participants included Palestinians, Israelis and internationals, that conference had nothing in common with the unbearable “Israeli-Palestinians dialogue” conferences, where two (or three) groups are “representing” their respective communities: it was an Inter-national gathering where you could hardly say who was Israeli, who was Arab and who was coming from abroad.

In my opinion, the conference reflected exactly the AIC, its nature, its place, its function, and its uniqueness. It is far from obvious, for example, to have a substantial number of Israelis in the heart of Bethlehem, and not provoking a political problem, or, at least, a reaction of surprise and uneasiness. The AIC Palestinian staff and partners and their great legitimacy in the national Palestinian context, made it not only acceptable but a true asset, precisely because it was not one of these numerous and disgusting “dialogue sessions,” highly financed by international “people-to-people” programs.

I particularly experienced that AIC distinctiveness during two events: first, during the dinner-party in a Beit Sahour restaurant, when I could witness the true comradeship  between all the participants, that allowed, among other things, the use of Hebrew around the table, something we usually try to avoid while in a Palestinian public space; second, the way the AIC staff members have become welcome in the Jerusalem Afro-Palestinian quarter (where the Jerusalem Palestinian national leadership held a briefing for our international guests) as old friends and comrades in struggle, not as “Israeli guests. “In fact, one of the local activists corrected the moderator who was describing us as “activists from the Israeli peace camp,” preferring to define us as “our Israeli comrades.” The same happened a few hours earlier, in the course of a solidarity visit for our international guests in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Another important and positive aspect of the conference was its “action-oriented” character. Most of the speeches and, of course, the workshops dealt with the practical implications of the political analyses, in terms of mobilizations and campaigns. As expected, they largely focused on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) international campaign, and the conference clearly pledged to increase our common involvement in what is becoming a central campaign in the Palestinian liberation strategy.

The Bethlehem Conference is one more concretization of our “Triangle Strategy for Liberation,” based on the coordinated action of the Palestinian resistance, international solidarity, and the support of anti-colonialist Israelis  

The success of the Third Bethlehem Conference is obviously due to the excellence of the speakers and guests, to the dedication of the AIC staff, in Bethlehem and in Jerusalem, but even more, to the hard work of our volunteers and interns. They gave all of them for the success of the Conference, and the undeniable success is their true reward.

< Prev