Palestinian writers kicked out, Egyptian writers back in
Regional, Culture, 12/30/1997

The permanent bureau of the 20th general conference of Arab Writers and men of letters recently held in Damascus announced continued suspension for the Palestinian Writers Union for the next six months, during which the Palestinian Union should prepare to convene a general conference with the participation of all its branches in Arab and foreign states.

The AWU's chairman and conference's chairman Ali Oqla Orsan said in a special statement to SANA's correspondent that the "Palestinian seat is there and the Palestinians would occupy it effectively after legal elections enabling the Palestinians to nominate their representatives to the AWU," adding the suspension was taken in compliance with provision 22 of the AWU's constitution.

Orsan continued that the General Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists had not met for ten years, after their meeting in Algeria in 1987. He said the AWU's regulations state that there should be a meeting every two years to elect legal leadership, yet Palestinian elections were not held and most of the Union's previous general secretariats resigned, whereas the Palestinian union branches in the Arab states are inactive.

And as a result many sides claim to represent the Palestinians, he said. Orsan continued saying that the Palestinian union can restore membership to the AWU after democratic elections.

Izzat Al Ghazzawi, head of the Palestinian Union of Writers said that "The decision of the 20th conference of the Arab Union of Writers and Journalists that was held recently in Damascus, Syria is a violation to outstanding orders of the Union." Ghazzawi, who lives in Ramallah, said the decision adopted in Damascus to suspend Palestinian writers membership in the union constituted a legal offense and stressed that, according to law, membership of any member of the Arab unions should not be suspended without the approval of the Union's General Conference.

He noted that the union's previous conference had neither proposed nor decided to suspend Palestinian membership. Ghazzawi blamed the Union's head, Jordanian writer Fakhri Qu'war, for behaving "as if the membership of the Palestinian union has been suspended."

"The conference was convened amidst a conspiracy to separate between writers inside Palestine and outside it," he said. "However," he added, "the conspiracy was doomed to failure after the Palestinian writers who established a new union were not permitted to attend the conference." He was referring to a move by Palestinian writers in exile who are affiliated with Damascus-based Palestinian factions who tried to form a union of their own aiming at excluding from the union Palestinian writers and journalists who support the Palestine.

The conference also reinstated Egyptian writers, who had been banned. Egyptian writer Jamal al-Gheitani, who took part in the deliberations of the twentieth conference of the Arab writers and intellectuals recently held in Damascus, lauded the results of the conference which emphasized the combating of any type of normalization with Israel.

The final statement approved by the conferees called for the revival of the idea of an Arab common market and the creation of an Arab economic bloc.

The statement stressed the group's support for lifting the blockade on Iraq, condemning attempts to divide Iraq and also emphasized their support for lifting the siege imposed on Libya.

It announced support for the Lebanese national resistance in south Lebanon, Palestine and in the Golan against Israeli occupation troops, the statement said that a call for facing a Zionist and foreign cultural invasion is a defense of "our deep cultural heritage which constitutes a real immunity for our nation to restore its cultural role in confrontation of strange and forged concepts."

Previous Stories:
  Syria's Khaddam on relations with Turkey   (12/19/1997)
  Arab writers conference opens today in Damascus   (12/18/1997)
  Damascus hosts Arab writers conference   (12/4/1997)

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