30^th, October 2006

We, civil society organizations members in the Occupied Palestine and Syrian Golan-Heights Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI) deliver our warmest greetings to the Palestinian people and all Muslims and Arabs on the occasion of 'Id al-Fitr. We hope that next year's feast will be one celebrated in freedom, liberty and independence.

OPGAI was established by a number of NGOs from occupied Palestine and the Syrian Golan Heights in 2004 in order to help defend the rights of the populations of both occupied areas. As such, we would like to express our deepest concern about the current political, social and economical conditions in occupied Palestine and wish to emphasize the following:

1. We condemn Israel's continued collective punishment of and military attacks on the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza, as well as the ongoing construction of the Apartheid Wall. These measures are completely unacceptable to Palestinians, Arabs, and a broad sector of the international community.
   
   
2. We condemn the international sanctions imposed on the Palestinian people immediately after they had conducted their second democratic parliamentary elections. These sanctions, which have led to an immoral siege of the occupied Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, were imposed only because the outcome of the Palestinian elections did not suit the governments of Israel and the United States.

 
We also condemn all forms of domestic violence, including kidnappings, destruction of Palestinian governmental and non-governmental institutions, as well as incitement employed in Palestinian public speech, because they are detrimental to our just cause.

Based on the above, we call upon the international community, Palestinian civil society and the political leadership to:

• Intervene immediately in order to ensure respect and implementation by Israel of international law and UN resolutions relevant to Palestine and the Golan Heights, in particular those pertaining to the right of return and self-determination.
  
  
• Immediately end the immoral siege of the occupied Palestinian people and related international policies which cripple the Palestinian population.
  
  
• Reconstruct and reactivate of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) so it can take on its important role as a liberation organization which operates based on democratic procedures with the widest-possible political participation of the Palestinian people.
  
  
• Resolve internal Palestinian disagreements through dialogue which represents the only means of constructive conflict resolution.
  
  
• Immediately halt all incitement among Palestinian factions, remove all armed forces from the streets, prevent domestic fighting and killing, and ensure the impartiality of the public Palestinian security forces in the current internal struggle over political power.
  
  
• Stop the use of violence when dealing with internal Palestinian conflicts, and protect personal and public property.
  
  
• Encourage cooperation between all Palestinians and public institutions in an effort to empower the just struggle for human rights and freedom, for the lifting of the immoral siege, and for the right of all, including Palestinian factions, to stand up for their positions and believes.
  
  
• Exempt public education and health from the ongoing strike of public sector employees, because their inclusion has disastrous consequences for the future of the Palestinian people.

OPGAI
October 2006