Moroccan, Palestinian businessmen pledge financial backing to intifada
Morocco-Palestine, Politics, 12/13/2000

Moroccan and Palestinian businessmen met in Rabat on Tuesday to study means to extend financial backing to Palestinian farmers and workers, victim of Israeli repression.

"360,000 Palestinian farmers and workers are forced to joblessness (.) and we would have starved without our own supplies," Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told the meeting, that was chaired by Moroccan foreign affairs and cooperation minister, Mohamed Benaissa.

"Over the $ 320 million levied on taxes in Palestine, Israeli government gives the Palestinians a mere $ 9 million" he said, adding that the occupied territories are under a full blockade.

Arafat, who arrived Tuesday afternoon in Morocco, decried the atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli war machine, killing more than 300 martyrs and injuring 14,000.

"Our people is facing an extremely serious situation, Israel using radio-active weapons that are internationally prohibited," Arafat said, calling on the USA not to veto the dispatching of international observers to the Palestinian territories.

The businessmen meeting is part of the moves to alleviate the sufferings of the Palestinian people, especially farmers and workers, who lost their jobs because of the blockade imposed by Israel.

Participants stressed the need to extend an active and intensified backing to the Palestinian people and to promote any move likely to contribute to the establishment of a fair and global peace in the Middle-East, guaranteeing the Palestinian people's inalienable rights.

The Rabat meeting was held after a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Damascus (Syria) over the weekend. It is the first of a series of encounters destined to raising funds for Palestinian farmers and workers.

The Arab extraordinary summit, held last November in Cairo, set up an Arab Businessmen Fund Council whose mission is to financially back Palestinians.

Previous Stories:
  Monotheist intellectuals back establishment of Palestinian state   (12/8/2000)
  Morocco calls for EU action to guarantee human rights in occupied territories   (11/16/2000)
  Moroccan association calls Arab leaders to work for international protection of Palestinians   (11/14/2000)

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