LATIN AMERICANS URGED TO AID PALESTINE, AT UN SEMINAR/SYMPOSIUM
Press Release
PAL/1859
LATIN AMERICANS URGED TO AID PALESTINE, AT UN SEMINAR/SYMPOSIUM
19980601
SANTIAGO, 27 May (Division for Palestinian Rights) -- Latin America and the Caribbean must go beyond sympathetic speeches and take tangible steps towards supplying support and aid to the Palestinian cause, said participants on the third day of an international seminar on the question of Palestine, being held in Santiago, Chile.
Hanna Yousef Emile Safieh, member of the Palestine National Council and professor at Brazil's Federal University of Natal, stressed the need to build institutions which could lay the foundation of an independent and democratic state. "Dire financial support is needed for our hospitals and universities, schools and libraries, charities and human rights associations", he said. Acknowledging that charity has its limits, Mr. Safieh also called for investment from Latin Americans and diaspora Palestinians scattered throughout the region. "The key to independence lies in investments: investments to create employment, employment to dam the ever-increasing flow of emigration." He also called for the establishment of scholarships, technological exchanges and networking with business groups to foster investment.
Lucas Domingo Hernández Polledo, Deputy Director of Cuba's Center for Studies on Africa and the Middle East, said there are 16 million Arabs in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to statistics compiled by the Arab Federation of Latin America. Those Arabs, together with academic and cultural institutions in the region, must try to set up a network to exchange information with each other and the media to educate people on Palestine, he said.
Maria Cecilia Barro Gil, an editor for the Argentine newspaper Cronista Comercial, said that 90 per cent of the information published on Palestine is processed by editors who have never seen Palestine and know nothing of the history of its people. Stating that the Western press often uses stereotypes in reporting on the region, she stressed the need to disseminate historical information to provide a better context on the question of Palestine. "Lack of information about the history of the Palestinian people is one of the causes of the indifference prevailing on our continent regarding the Palestinian question."
Doris Musalem Real, professor at Mexico's Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, suggested compiling an international inventory on useful articles and video material from the United Nations and elsewhere to better
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educate people on the question of Palestine. There was need for a comprehensive video explaining the Palestinian situation which could be widely distributed. Echoing the call of other panellists for greater cooperation among experts and analysts, the professor urged a more active use of the Internet to exchange messages and post documents.
Enrique Correa, Dean of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Chile, said the challenge today was to prompt action in the region around the Palestinian issue. "We have to do a lot in Latin America to mobilize the Palestinian communities and also the Jewish communities on the subject of peace."
The vacuum of information on Palestine in Latin America was also echoed in an earlier panel, held on Wednesday afternoon. "The lack of information at the global level about the rights of the Palestinian people in the peace process is disgraceful", said Peruvian General Gaston Ibañez O'Brien, former Minister of the Interior and Tourism. General O'Brien called for workshops and panel discussions to be organized on Palestine.
Ivan Moreira, of the Chilean Parliament, said that Latin Americans can share experiences with Palestine in such areas as economic statism as a remedy for poverty, the weakening of the rule of law and of institutions, and political and economic centralism. Brazilian parliamentarian Jandira Feghali called for the creation of a fund by the private sector for strengthening Palestine. Other speakers included Airton Soares, former parliamentarian and head of the Arab Brazilian Parliamentarian League, and Mario Nazal Momares of the Palestinian-Chilean Chamber of Commerce.
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