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Beacon of nonviolent resistance 3-day conference underway
June 4, 2008
Source : PNN
by Mohamad Khalid
The Bil’in International Conference of Popular Resistance began Wednesday. Throughout the past several years, the western Ramallah village has become a beacon in the West Bank for nonviolent resistance against the Wall, settlements, land confiscation and occupation.
Coordinator of the Popular Committee to Resist the Wall and Settlements, Abdullah Abu Rahma, said that European participation in the three-day conference was at 50 last year, with this year expected three times that number at least.
Among the officials attending is Vice President of the European Parliament Luisa Morgantini, with a letter of support coming from former US President Jimmy Carter. President Abbas and appointed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are there kicking off the conference.
Abu Rahma says of the well-known guests, “We are trying to highlight it through the group who attended. Europe is particularly important as its support for Palestine, both grassroots and official, rises.
But most important to many who look to Bil’in for its courageous nonviolent resistance in the face of Israeli attacks, shootings and arrests, are the people of the town who risk life and limb to fight for justice.
Abu Rahma said that the date for the conference was chosen to coincide with the memorial of the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in June 1967.
Regardless of the ill-fated negotiation process over settlement expansion, and the lack of Israeli response to the International Court of Justice statement against the Wall, or all of the international laws and resolutions that Israel contravenes, Abu Rahma says, “We’re still betting on the popular resistance: that of the Palestinians and the international solidarity. We want the world to hear our voices and the great popular pressure that is coming from all of us against Israeli occupation.”
