Russell Tribunal on Palestine September 3rd 2009 News update

Duration: 5 minutes and 46 seconds

Year: 2009

Country: United Kingdom

Language: French (France)

License: CC - Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives

Genre: Documentary

Producer: Duffer2222

Director: Duffer2222

Views: 512 (5 embedded)

Posted by: duffer2222 on Sep 6, 2009

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine will hold its first session in Barcelona in February 2010. Pierre Galand, of the organizing committee, explains how it is going to work, and what are the main priorities for the tribunal and its supporters in the next few months. Subtitles by HeLand.

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PIERRE GALAND
We got together today in Brussels
with the organizational International Committee
of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine.
That was quite a busy day
but we are now on our way
to organize the first international session
of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine
in Barcelona.
Why Barcelona? Actually this is quite a symbolic place.
Let's keep in mind that this is the place where
the agreement linking Europe and the countries surrounding the Mediterranean was signed back in 1995.
And then of course this embraces Israel and Palestine as well.
The spirit of the Tribunal is really innovative.
The purpose is not to go through all condemnations towards Israel again.
Those are known since the United Nations issued its resolutions
and since the International Court of Justice published a statement.
Our Tribunal has a very specific calling.
It is the role of the public opinion
to judge the failures of the international community
considering the crimes which are commited
by Israel in the occupied territories of Palestine.
This is quite original
and it should help us to explain
the exact responsibilities of the international community
and of Europe in particular.
Thus, the Barcelona session will talk about
the particular responsibilities of the E.U.,
of its members but will also analyze why
some people in Europe, civil servants
really care about their job and missions.
As an example, I am thinking about the customs officers
who do reports about all the violations of the association agreement on Israel.
They do convey full reports about those violations
here at the UE headquarters and we realize that nothing
has been done, no effect at all,
absolutely no reprimand from the EU.
Europe doesn't even respect its own rules
so we will talk about this.
To do so, we built a system of national committees,
several of them committed
to work on creating the essential expertise
required to prepare the Barcelona session.
We're talking about Ireland, Italy, of course Catalonia et Belgium
which work to prepare
the expertise files that will be the founding elements of the Tribunal,
the Tribunal itself, being supported by experts
who will check if the documents provided
match the reality.
Of course, the Tribunal will also
summon Europe to defend itself and if no one shows up
we will then explain
its attitude, its points of view and why Europe holds its positions.
This will be our very first session
amongst others since we already planned
the next one which will take place in London
right after this one either at the end of the 1st quarter or beginning of the 2nd quarter of 2010.
Obviously, all this requires the mobilization of fundings
one extraordinary thing is that the municipality and the province
of Barcelona offered us our first founding
for the realization of this Tribunal... of this session in February 2010.
This is great, we can now work
and we have a responsibility to call up experts,
a jury and a spokesman
and most of all to make sure that the public opinion remains informed.
This is a tribunal of opinion and then if we do not have the support of people acting for us
if we don't have citizens convinced that today
there is a need to end this chronical injustice
because it has been going on for 60 years against the palestinian people.
Thus, as organizers and as a Tribunal, this an appeal
to assure that the public opinions throughout the world
realize that this is an extremely important event
and that we need them to bear this question
as it was done about Viet Nam
when the Americans went there
and which made the American public opinion change at that time.
And we think that public opinion
can have a direct influence
on Europe, on the US and on the UN.
This is the reason why this is essential.
I would add that there is no possible action without money
and then I am calling up for all those who can give a hand
by sending money to this Tribunal in order to assure its independence.
We will soon receive a grant from a local European public organization
but we are aware that the EU will never finance us and take criticism at the same time.
This is the reason why we need the support of the European citizens
and others in the world to go forward.
This is where we stand right now
and I must say that this meeting today was quite a success,
it was very dynamic
and we had some international personnalities like the Ambassador Stephane Hessel
who stands by us and shows his support.
This man is a symbol of the Human Rights activism in the whole world
and having him with us, listening to his advice, is extremely precious.