48 Europe-based organizations dubbed the projected Palestinian National Council (PNC) session slated to be held on April 30 “illegitimate”.
48 organizations said ongoing calls to hold a PNC session on April 30 only aggravate existing divisions announcing their back-up of a petition signed by 28 institutions operating in 12 countries in Latin America.
The organizations said in a joint statement a PNC session should be held following the consent of all Palestinian factions and on the basis of a democratic procedure that takes into account the nature and needs of the national Palestinian scene.
The statement added that the calls for a PNC session are illegitimate for they do not stem from the Preparatory Committee which has held several meetings the last of which occurred in Beirut by the end of January 2017.
The organizations referred to an earlier agreement to hold an ordinary PNC session that would culminate in a unified decision made following democratic consultations.
The statement called for a meeting of the Preparatory Committee attended by the factions’ secretaries-general and the members of the Executive Committee and chaired by the PNC’s Presidency Office so as to launch calls for an ordinary session that respects the decisions announced by the Central Council in 2015 and 2018 particularly as regards the deactivation of the Oslo agreements and the oppressive penalties imposed on the blockaded Gaza strip.
It said a meeting of the highest body in the Palestine Liberation Organization in occupied Ramallah “means that we the Palestinians are to remain under the control of the Israeli occupation and to simply agree to the terms set by the Israeli occupation.”
It also stressed the need to renew the PNC members who have remained in office for decades and to respect the rules of transparency and egalitarianism in the renewal process.
The organizations called on the Palestinians overseas to stand on guard to such attempts to pull the wool over Palestinians’ eyes and to seriously work on dismantling the politics of monolithism which do not serve Palestinians’ anti-occupation struggle.
