Officials and NGO representatives, activists, and experts stressed the need to end the ongoing political division, achieving national unity, enhancing the role of civil society organizations, and the resilience of the Palestinian people in the face of different challenges, especially the COVID pandemic.
This came during the annual "The State of Palestinian Civil Society ... 2020," conference held by PNGO. This year's conference held the title of "Civil Society Organizations ... Resilience and Challenges", as part of the "Promoting democracy and building the capacities of Palestinian civil organizations" project, which is implemented in partnership with the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA).
This partnership, as described by both NPA and PNGO, still aims to end the political division to stand in unity against extinguishing the Palestinian will.
The attendees emphasized the importance of the role of civil society organizations in strengthening societal struggle to strengthen democracy and human rights, especially in women and elections matters, in addition to enhancing the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, specifically in Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, the Gaza Strip, and other areas threatened with confiscation.
In his welcoming speech, Amjad Al-Shawa, PNGO director, said the conference is now being held for the seventh consecutive year under challenging conditions experienced by the Palestinian people represented in the continuing aggression, the suffocating blockade, and the decline of funding; and to add insult to injury, the spread of the Coronavirus.
Al-Shawa praised the critical role of civil society organizations in light of the Corona pandemic, which continues to defend the Palestinian people's rights and strengthen their resoluteness even though it is going through a phase ranked as the worst in its history.
Al Shawa pointed out that the conference will be held in three sessions over three days, given the necessary measures considering the pandemic.
The Vice-Chairman of PNGO Board of Directors, Taysir Muhaisin, said in his opening speech that civil society organizations' situation is witnessing an unprecedented deterioration considering the funding deficit and the continuing Corona pandemic.
Muhaisin continued to review several challenges and difficulties that civil organizations face, foremost among which are the Israeli occupation restrictions and siege, the Israeli incitement campaigns against Palestinians, the funding decline, political conditions that some parties fail to impose, the impact of disasters regionally, and the complicated reality of the private sector.
For his part, the Director of the Norwegian People's Aid Office, Osama Damo, admired the partnership with the NGO Network, referring to the challenges that the Corona pandemic imposed on civil organizations and the Palestinian community in general.
Damo pointed out that communication between people continued despite the difficulties, challenges, and masks, indicating that the pandemic had raised unemployment rates worldwide.
The pandemic proved that Palestine needs a robust civil society standing on one side, Damo expressed, with governmental and other institutions to bring the Palestinian community to safety.
He added that the arrival of the pandemic in Palestine constituted an opportunity for everyone to confirm that a particular party cannot confront it solely and that collective awareness and prevention measures are the only way of action in the absence of medical vaccines.
Amal Siyam, Women's Affairs Center Director, moderated the first session, in which both Tayseer Muheisen and Dr. Mustafa Barghouti viewed their papers entitled, "International Community Organizations in Light of Regional and International Changes," and "The Challenges facing civil society organizations," respectively.
Muhaisin referred, in his paper, to the political transformations in the world, most notably the continuing wave of Yemeni populism and nationalism. He considered that the impact of these transformations in Palestine is related to the extent of the opportunities or threats they pose to the Israeli occupation and its continued violations against Palestinians and human rights organizations, civil organizations, and the global boycott movement.
Among the region's current situations, he pointed out the enormous Arab-Israeli normalization wave and building an Arab-Israeli alliance against Iran.
Before the outbreak of the epidemic, civil society organizations suffered from reducing public space, declining funding sources, increasing sources competition, and rising demand for their services in light of natural emergencies and conflicts, he stressed.
Furthermore, according to him, the Palestinian civil society's contribution to confronting the epidemic ranged from rapid response to adopting recovery strategies that enhance the resilience of the economy and society.
Muhaisin added that the contributions included community education, monitoring violations, social care, and protection, meeting the most affected groups' needs, fighting corruption and government accountability, and establishing national emergency funds.
Adding to that, Muheisen considered that practical experience advantages helped carry out these activities and tasks. In other words, the ability to participate, access to damaged groups, and transparency helped ease the situation.
In turn, Dr. Barghouti valued the heroic work of Palestinian civil society organizations, especially in the Gaza Strip, pointing to four challenges they face, the Deal of the Century is one of them. This scheme is one of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's doing under Trump's cover. According to Barghouti, this deal will be on the negotiation table if the Palestinian Authority decides to go back to peace talks.
Barghouti added that the danger exists by transforming Palestine into disconnected places controlled by the Israeli authorities and Judaizing Jerusalem as well as about 62 percent of the West Bank territories.
He stressed that the aim was to repeat the ethnic cleansing and displace Palestinians, as in 1948, which results in perpetuating the Israeli apartheid regime.
The resistance to ethnic cleansing and displacement requires strengthening the Palestinian people's resilience and developing the threatened areas, he stressed. The government and civil society organizations should play a significant role in doing so.
Moreover, Barghouti added that the second challenge is the decline of Palestinian democracy, which means civil society organizations must play a significant role in confronting arbitrariness and tyranny, suppressing freedom of expression, and pressuring for elections to achieve democracy, and to end the painful, ongoing division.
In the same context, he explained that the Palestinian division represents a third great challenge and poses a threat to all citizens. That is a good reason for calling on civil society organizations to end the struggle and present the unity model between the West Bank and Gaza.
Finally, Barghouti mentioned the fourth challenge represented in the struggle for social issues, civil organization, and the enactment of laws that protect families, women, and persons with disabilities, and provide comprehensive health insurance for all citizens social security law that was long forgotten.
Dr. Mukhaimer Abu Saada, Political Science Professor, commented on the two papers by saying that the current year was an exceptional one. Many regional and international events and transformations will have the most far-reaching impact on people's lifestyle on their future, including the global system and relations between states and nations and the nature of civil societies, and their renewed roles.
Dr. Abu Saada went on to stress the importance of the role of civil society organizations in the national struggle, the protection of national identity, and the strengthening of the steadfastness of our people, calling for providing a suitable enabling environment for civil society organizations.
Adding to that, he stressed the importance of working towards achieving national reconciliation, holding general elections, both presidential and legislative, and ensuring their periodicity.
At the end of the session, room for discussion and interventions were given, during which the speakers stressed the need to end violations against civil society organizations, not to keep them under any threat, and to enhance community accountability.