Press release: Delegation with Via Campesina meets Arafat

Via Campesina

Press release
31march 2002

Palestine: the international pacifist civil company imposes its presence on
Ramallah

"We are breaking the blockade of Ramallah with our reinforced presence"



The international civil mission for the protection of the Palestinian people
is present since Thursday March 28 in the besieged city of Ramallah. Composed
at the beginning of forty militants of French and Swiss nationality, it has
been just strengthened this morning by the arrival of a group of about thirty
people (20 French and 10 Italian). At present the mission counts nearly 80 men
and women. 

The missions' top priority is its a role as observer. It testifies the deeds
committed by the Israeli army against Palestinian citizens. Some of its
members accompany ambulances and medical teams that Israeli soldiers do not
hesitate to take as a target, showing no respect for international
conventions. 

Whereas the States do not apply the resolutions which they have just voted in
the United Nations, the international civil society currently seems the only
political force capable to provoke a concrete evolution on the ground. 

José Bové, of the Confédération Paysanne and member of the delegation of Via
Campesina, estimates that "We are breaking the blockade of Ramallah with our
reinforced presence. Thus we are mitigating the failure of States which didn't
do anything for it." 

The 80 militants present in the besieged city of Ramallah launch a call to all
civil organisations worldwide to compensate the failure of states and
international institutional structures.

They ask all organizations: 

. To delegate observers in the occupied territories, to reinforce the group
currently present; 

. To launch a vast mobilization campaign of the international public opinion; 

. To pressure their respective governments so that they take finally measures
which are essential to ensure the protection of the Palestinian people; 

. To obtain an effective implementation of the resolutions voted in the United
Nations.



To contact Via Campesina (José Bové, Paul Nicholson, Mario Lill) and the civil
missions 

in Ramallah: tel. +972-2-29.535.44 

To contact Via Campesina and civil missions in Jeruzalem: +972-2-628 2261 

To contact Via Campesina in Europe: or +33-5-6186 1622 or +32-2-343 8444 

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