We aim from this seminar to re-direct official and popular attention to the most dangerous challenges facing our cause and at the same time, we feel urged to draw the attention of the international community through their representatives in our country and through the mass media on the dangers of the ongoing settlements expansion policies in their various forms, including the wall of annexation and apartheid expansion. One has to note in this occasion that the international community has to assume its responsibilities to force Israel to abide by the international law.

To start with, we have to note that as the recent Israeli government assumed office, the rate of settlement expansion was accelerated in the following areas:

* Expansion of the existing settlements through confiscation of more Palestinian lands.
* Notable increase in number of housing units and licenses to build new units inside the settlements, especially the settlements in the area of Jerusalem City.
* Increase in expansion of the settlements infrastructure, including the bypass roads to serve the settlements.
* Finally, ongoing construction works in the wall through confiscation of more lands.

The striking phenomenon which causes one to wonder is the fact that all of this is taking place amid almost total absence of Palestinian official efforts to confront this policy, and maybe the fact that the Palestinians are preoccupied with the internal disputes on the future of the Palestinian political system and the government formation or even the bloody violent clashes between the armed groups came at the expense of the needed political efforts from the PNA and its various institutions, such as the Presidency and the government and the PLO and its institutions, to confront and resist the settlement policies through the legitimate political and diplomatic means.

The past experience of taking the case of the apartheid wall to the International Court of Justice and the success its achieved in highlighting the issue of the settlement policies is the best proof on the potentials of the Palestinian leadership to achieve political gains when this leadership decides to make use of all the existing and available government and non-governmental potentials in a collective manner to place the file of the settlements on top of all priorities.

Having said that, we urge our speakers today from the government and the PLO to brief us on the current picture in terms of the efforts and the possible plans to reunify the national and political efforts against the settlements policies and to mobilize the popular efforts in that direction.

On the other hand, we can see how the Palestinian people feel and express frustration from the fact that the international community has been neglecting the Israeli continuous violations of the international law and the Security Council Resolutions and the Ruling of the International Court of Justice pertaining to the settlement expansion policies.

In order to clarify the international double standards policies, we would like to point out that the international community represented in the Quartet Committee decided to boycott the new Palestinian government politically and economically because the latter adopts policies that do not match and conform to the international legitimacy resolutions pertaining to the Arab Palestinian-Israeli conflict while no position or steps were adopted or taken to make Israel understand that it also can lose its international relations as its settlements policies contradict with the international legitimacy.

Aren’t these same double standards policies responsible for the declining influence of the international forces that call for the adoption of the international legitimacy and legitimate diplomatic and political action to achieve the legitimate goals, such as halt of settlements expansion and end of occupation in exchange for peace?

One has to note also that the Israeli settlement policies are not random but are used as a tool to achieve political goals related to the future of Occupied Palestinian Territories and the final status context, whether through agreed upon matters or through unilateral imposed solutions. What is the political content and goal that Israel tries to achieve through settlements?

The most important question is as follows: what and where is the Palestinian political strategy to confront these policies and to frustrate the schemes at the popular and official levels? And how can one find integration between these efforts? And what is needed to expand and support the remaining pockets of popular struggle which gained local and international admiration and respect through their methods resisting and confronting the settlement expansion despite the inadequate support?

The fact that Israel refrained from making any commitment to halt settlement expansion was the obstacle that prevent an agreement in the Washington negotiations in 1992/1993 and on the other hand, the success achieved in signing the Oslo Accords was only possible after the Palestinian side accepted to sign an agreement that does not include an Israeli commitment to halt settlement construction. Time has proved that the settlement process and the peace process cannot coexist and that one process has wiped out the other process.

The settlements inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories are directly responsible for the economic and social hardship of the Palestinian people. The settlements make up a tool to dissect and isolate the occupied territories and restricts the movement of citizens and goods. Settlements are therefore responsible for the internal suffering which generates despair and conflict and internal fighting.

We hope that the deliberations in this seminar would succeed in reaching practical and applicable recommendations that can enable small groups to work together and formulate effective planes to mobilize official and popular performance and rise to the level of the challenge represented in confronting the settlements policies.

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