Palestinians in occupied territories denounce Annapolis conference

Some 100,000 Palestinian people demonstrated in besieged Gaza on Nov. 27 against the so-called peace conference being held in Annapolis, Md. They chanted “No recognition of Israel!” and protested what they called “the renunciation of Palestinians’ legitimate rights.”

“We do not recognize those who hold talks in Annapolis. They do not represent the Palestinian people,” said Ismail Haiyeh, a former Palestinian prime minister and member of Hamas who was dismissed by the forces of Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), who took part in the Annapolis meeting.

A participant in a women’s rally said, “We don’t want more alleged peace conferences, which bring us more suffering. We prefer poverty to accepting shameful peace.”

In Gaza, the Palestinian Legislative Council passed a bill against making concessions on the Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homeland, as well as the Palestinian people’s rights to Jerusalem and to resist occupation.

Hundreds who demonstrated in the West Bank cities of Nablus, Tulkarm, Hebron and Ramallah were attacked by Palestinian Authority security forces, who killed one demonstrator in Hebron. The PA had banned the protests.

Other demonstrations took place outside the territories, in the Palestinian diaspora, demanding their right to return.

Speaking of the protests in the territories, Jamal Juma, coordinator of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-apartheid Wall Campaign, said, “Our demonstration, which was supported by the Popular Committees of the Refugee Camps and over 150 civil society organizations and representatives, called for the upholding of the fundamental principles of our struggle: the right of the refugees to return, the right to Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital and the right to our land.

“We were refusing the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, as this would legitimize the Zionist ideology of colonialism, racism and ethnic cleansing, and effectively exonerate Israel from the crimes of the Nakba [expulsion of Palestinian people in 1948], waiving the right of return. Such recognition would justify and reinforce the Israeli system of apartheid against Palestinian citizens of Israel. ...

“For the oppressed and occupied, ongoing struggle and resistance using all necessary means ... is our only tool to ensure that ‘negotiations’ talk about how to achieve our rights and not how to abandon them step by step. Yet for the first time in the 60 years of our struggle, those who claim to represent us at a national level are no longer talking about resistance to the attacks of the occupiers. Instead they are disingenuously opening up negotiations relying on the U.S., the occupation’s most ardent backer, to act as an ‘honest broker.’” (electronicintifada.net, Nov. 28 and Dec. 2)