Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002
Delegation Via Campesina blocked in Ramallah-Palestine

José Bové and 77 militants are encircled in Ramallah by the Israeli forces.

A civil mission went on March 27 to Palestine to celebrate the Day of the Earth and to testify its solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people. 78 citizens, some of them French led by José Bové, some of them from Switserland, and three representatives of Via Campesina (Mario Lill of the landless movement MST from Brazil, Doris Hernandez from Honduras and Paul Nicholson from Spain as well as hundreds of other citizens from Italie, Belgium, Spain and other countries, decided yesterday evening on March 28, to go voluntarily to Ramallah besieged and threatened by occupation. They demonstrated in front of the buildings of Palestinian Autority, and announced this morning that they decided to remain on the spot in Ramallah as long as the Israeli offensive continuous.

Disgusted by the cowardice of the European governments which close their eyes, these men and these women are returned in the occupied territories to denounce the policy of terror installation by the government of Ariel Sharon. Perfectly conscious of the danger, they are currently blocked in a hotel of Ramallah three hundred meters of the Head Quaters of Yasser Arafat, surrounded by Israeli tanks.

It is symptomatic that once more the civil society is forced to take disproportionate risks to challenge the politicians. The press releases emanating from the Quay of Orsay are in no way an answer adapted to the extreme gravity of the situation. The President and the government of the Republic, must intervene urgently to require:

• The sending of an international force for the protection of the Palestinian people.
• Total and unconditional withdrawal of the Israeli army from the occupied Palestinian territories.
• The resumption of negotiations between the Israeli State and the Palestinian Authority.

Contacts: Bernard Moser: +33-6.80.13.44.41

Palestine info | PGA