Supporters of the Palestinian cause are being invited to attend a free and open meeting of the United Nations Committee on Palestinian Rights, due to be held at the UN Escap headquarters on July 10 and 11.
It is the first time that the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will be meeting in Bangkok and the first time that former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad will join Israelis such as Haaretz newspaper columnist Gideon Levy, a prominent critic of the Israeli occupation, on the panel.
Other speakers include Abdou Salam Diallo, the committee chairman; Pichet Wangtepanukhor, adviser to the Thai foreign minister; keynote speaker Riad Malki, foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority; and Diana Buttu, joint fellow with the Middle East Initiative and Harvard Law School's Human Rights Programme and former legal adviser at the Palestine Liberation Organisation Negotiations Affairs Department, Ramallah.
Wolfgang Grieger, director of the division for Palestinian rights under the UN's political affairs department (email: grieger@un.org), who is already in Bangkok to prepare for the meetings, said that the committee meets four times a year in different capitals. Pr
This year's meeting has assumed considerable importance due to the ongoing changes in the Arab world, the continued stagnation of the peace process and the growing influence of the Israeli lobby in the US political machinery, especially in an election year when the support of this powerful, well-oiled and well-funded lobby becomes a life-and-death issue for presidential candidates.
Mr Grieger said, ''One unique feature of this committee is that it is not just a UN conference. The meetings are open. We want to get the word out about issues such as advocacy of Palestinian statehood and the right of return. We will discuss specific political issues that are [obstacles] in the way of implementing these rights and the opportunities to break the status quo.'' He invited NGOs, parliamentarians and academics to register, although it must be done very quickly.There is no registration fee.
Asked if the committee was just another ''talk shop'', Mr Grieger replied that by definition, the role of the committee as an advocacy forum could be taken to mean ''talk shop'', but he also pointed out that all forms of action had to first be preceded by talk. He said several Bangkok-based ambassadors have confirmed participation, along with a large number of NGOs and groups such as the World Council of Churches.
He said the meeting should help facilitate the formal process of recognising Palestine by the Thai government which has been confirmed but still requires parliamentary approval. This is what happened after an earlier meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay. ''Today, more countries recognise Palestine than Israel,'' Mr Grieger said.
He said that neither the Israeli nor the US governments recognise the UN Palestine Rights Committee and do not cooperate with it but both can attend its meetings. ''Sometimes they [Israel] send an observer who sits silently in the back. The US explicitly demands that the committee should receive no share of the US contribution to the UN budget.''
Mr Grieger said, ''Israel follows these meetings and is concerned. It puts pressure on them to recognise the Palestinian state. If we get a good attendance, it will help.'' He said the committee also makes an effort to reach out to speakers from Israel, and this year two Israelis are coming: Journalist Levy and Gadi Baltiansky, director-general of the Geneva Initiative in Israel.
The topics of discussion raise expectations that the meeting will help counter the lies, myths and outright falsehoods propagated by the Israeli disinformation machinery to fool the general public into believing that it is always the ''bad'' Palestinians who are part of the problem while the ''good'' Israelis are always part of the solution.
But the most phenomenal forces of change are unleashed when people discovered they have been lied to by people they had trusted. This column long has been at the forefront of English-language media efforts in Thailand to expose anti-Arab and anti-Muslim lies and myths. Now, interested parties in Thailand will get a front-row chance to hear the truth and make up their own minds.
The official documentation issued in advance of the meeting clearly shows why the Israeli-Palestinian problem continues to fester unresolved year after year. The list of topics refers to the growing number of settlements as ''illegal'', as defined by a string of UN General Assembly, Security Council, Human Rights Council and International Court of Justice resolutions, statements and decisions.
The meeting will unveil the expansion of Israeli settlements since the Oslo Accords, the impact this is having on the human rights and humanitarian situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and how it is now the ''main obstacle'' to the two-state solution.
It doesn't then take much to ask why such an ''illegal'' status continues and why Israel, the undisputed occupying power, faces no legal action, economic sanctions or geopolitical chastising. Answers to this ''why'' question alone could prove to be an eye-opener.
The meeting will also outline the ''adverse consequences of the construction of the Wall on occupied land'', the future viability of the state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, diplomatic recognition of Palestinian statehood by regional governments, action by Asian and Pacific States to uphold international law and finally, the role of civil society and parliamentarians in raising awareness and promoting the two-state solution.
This final topic is important, especially in Thailand where the local media and academic community has been surprisingly lax in raising awareness of the root causes of the Middle East crisis.
There will be plenty of food for thought. Other speakers include Walden Bello, a parliamentarian from the Philippines and former head of Focus on the Global South at Chulalongkorn University; Hasan Kleib, director-general for multilateral affairs, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Indonesia; Nick Ferriman, vice-chairperson of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Thailand; Iain Scobbie, Sir Joseph Hotung research professor in law, human rights and peace building in the Middle East at the school of Oriental and African studies of the University of London; Li Guofu, senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies; and Taro Kono, member of the House of Representatives of Japan.
The documentary if This is my Land ... Hebron, will be shown. The film by Giulia Amati and Stephen Natanson explores the difficult cohabitation of Palestinians and Jewish settlers in Hebron.