Ref: 5/2010

On Tuesday, the 19 of January, the
Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Raji Sourani, gave
a presentation to the French Collective for a Just and Durable Peace between
Palestinian and Israelis, which held an event, entitled “Gaza, one year
later,” in Paris. The meeting included speeches by participants of the
Gaza Freedom March, Michael Warschawski, the head of the Alternative Information
Center, and Stephane Hessel, who was involved in the drafting of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.

Sourani’s 40-minute presentation was
broadcast to the event, which was attended by over 1,000 supporters of the
Palestinian cause, live via videolink. In his presentation, he stressed that
one year after the Israeli attacks on Gaza (27 December 2008 – 18 January
2009), which he called “the worst event in our history since the
Nakba,” there is still no accountability for war crimes and crimes against
humanity committed in the attacks. Even worse, European countries and the
United States had been obstructing accountability by voting against the
Goldstone Report and thereby against the rule of law.

Despite the ongoing siege and the
economic suffocation of Gaza, Sourani said, and the de-facto Apartheid System
in the West Bank, Palestinians are not giving up. People are ready to stand for
a challenge. Palestinians felt strengthened by and deeply appreciated the
solidarity shown by the committed 1,435 people from 43 countries who invested
their own time and resources to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip. Despite
the failure to enter Gaza, the opportunity of this moment should be seized in
order to organize the movement further.

Sourani emphasized that the struggle
to free Gaza should not be derailed; Palestinians have no interest in having
Egypt as their enemy and the focus should remain on the Israeli occupation and
the war crimes committed during the attacks codenamed ‘Cast Lead.’ In the future,
solidarity efforts should focus on the capitals of Europe, where citizens will
have the ability to exert the greatest influence. Sourani encouraged everyone
to push for Palestinian dialogue and reconciliation. Finally, he expressed his
thanks and gratitude to all those working in solidarity with Gaza and the
Palestinians, saying “we are proud of you and you should be proud of
yourselves.”