Nabil Shaath: Palestinians face serious conditions
Palestine-Regional, Politics, 4/28/2006

Addressing the United Nations Seminar of Assistance to the Palestinian People, Member of Palestinian Legislative Council, Nabil Shaath, said the new Government was willing to accept financial oversights or to have money transferred through President Abbas, but it could not accept the attempt to bypass the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

He called for the serious reconvening of the conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to protect Palestinians, an increased United Nations presence, implementation of donor pledges, the return of a free transfer of funds to the Palestinians, and the revitalization of the Rafah agreement on the freedom of movement.

The session, part of a two-day meeting sponsored by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, heard presentations by experts on the scope of the economic and humanitarian crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Shaath said the issues Palestinians now faced were both chronic and acute and required different solutions, adding that the Israeli attempt at serious demographic change had been going on since the beginning of the peace process.

"The building of the Separation Wall which would enclose huge areas of Jerusalem, separating people from their jobs, schools and hospitals, continued, and Israel now said openly that it was imposing a unilateral solution," he stressed.

Long-term solutions had to be considered, he continued. A move to end the Israeli occupation had to go hand in hand with humanitarian aid and serious international commitment to a solution.

He supported the reconvening of the conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to protect Palestinians. Additionally, Palestinians might have to call for an increased United Nations presence.

"All donors had to be persuaded to resume the implementation of their pledges. The return of a free transfer of funds to the Palestinians was imperative. The attempt to interfere with the banking system to prevent people from receiving money, even from Palestinians and other Arabs, was unacceptable," he told the Seminar.

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