NGO representatives and activists emphasized the need to achieve national unity to fight the attempts of extinguishing the Palestinian cause. This unity would strengthen the community and ease the popular struggle to represent an example of cooperation between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

They also stressed the importance of the role of unity in the national struggle, the protection of national identity, and the building up of resilience, which requires providing an enabling environment for civil society organizations without violations and threats. The environment must include a sense of social accountability to prosper.

For the third day, the annual conference "The State of Palestinian Civil Society - 2020", held by PNGO with the title of "Civil Society Organizations ... Resilience and Challenges", continued the activities of the annual conference "Promoting democracy and building the capacities of Palestinian civil organizations," which is implemented in partnership with the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA).

The event on its final day mainly addressed the steadfastness of the Palestinian people to resist ethnic cleansing and displacement, exclusively in Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, the Gaza Strip, and the areas threatened with confiscation.

Wafa Al-Ghusain, Director of the Teacher Creativity Center in the Gaza Strip, read the conference’s recommendations for three sessions to include the three main topics addressed at the national, political, and social struggle levels.

The conference recommended, in this matter, to use the global trend of equality, justice, and freedom against oppression, to reinforce international solidarity with the Palestinian cause by adopting global protests racism.

The recommendations stressed the importance of civil society organizations' major role in confronting arbitrariness and tyranny, suppressing freedom of expression, and pressuring the hold of both presidential and legislative elections.

Adding to that, the societal struggle to sustain democracy and human rights, especially in women matters, was also valued in addition to leading the struggle for social issues, passing new laws to protect women and PWDs with comprehensive health insurance for all citizens, and enforcing social security law.

Al-Ghusain urged adopting a social economy approach, to maximize the power of small producers to access markets, and to assign leadership roles to women in decision-making processes.

The recommendations also stressed the need to press the government to implement economic recovery strategies that invest in the business, technology, and sustainability, and to ensure that the basic priorities of sustainable development are not neglected nor overlooked.

There is a need for the government, the private sector, and civil society organizations, according to the recommendations, to work on rehabilitating the damaged sectors, and the owners of small and micro enterprises, particularly women and youth.

In the same context, supporting youth, women, and vulnerable groups, and paying attention to the social repercussions of the pandemic, especially the matters of damaged society segments, was one of the important points on the recommendations. This can be done by enhancing psychological and social enablement, providing more regular services to day labourers, and mechanisms that contribute to making more job opportunities for youth and fresh graduates.

Moreover, the recommendations asserted the strengthening of participation in development and relief decision-making mechanisms by forming a body consisting of government, private sector, and civil society organizations representatives. The body should adopt a national emergency plan that responds to gender needs and ensures a broad representation of women in the emergency committee.

Furthermore, rethinking the organizations ’work model to diversify sources of income, face the challenge of reducing civic space, and unify the civil discourse towards women's rights, was a priority on the recommendations’ list.

Amjad Al-Shawa, PNGO director, started the final session indicating that the Network faced a challenge in holding the event during the pandemic, referring to the health, economic and social conditions in the Gaza Strip after the spread of COVID-19.

Al-Shawa said that the Network believes in diversity and works in coordination with various parties to protect human rights and toughen the steadfastness of our Palestinian people, in light of an unprecedented Israeli incitement campaign and a decline in funding.

Al-Shawa admired the effort exerted by the conference committee organizers, session moderators, presenters, and all attendees, especially those who commented on presented papers.

Issam Al-Arouri, Director of the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid, moderated the closing session and presented a paper entitled "Internal structures of civil society organizations in light of the continuing Corona pandemic and funding deficit\governance."

Al-Arouri believed that what is required of civil society organizations is to rapidly start working at the top level of emergency, gathering resources, and mobilizing precautions to serve the Palestinian community and people.

Al-Arouri praised the contributions of the private health sector since the start of the pandemic, which shown astronomical degrees of coordination with the public, private sectors, and the civil initiatives that started in Bethlehem and spread to all governorates.

Samir Zaqout, deputy director of the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, warned in a paper entitled "The reality of the right to form associations in light of the current situation", against the decline of the number of Palestinian civil organizations and their contributions as well.

This decline, according to Zaqout, comes as a result of severe pressures and restrictions on civil society organizations and its degree may differ depending on the nature of work and the region.

Zaqout referred to the role of NGOs in defending and exposing victims of Israeli violations, and in using international mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court. In that context, he pointed out that the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights has documented the damage of 92 civil society organizations because of the Israeli bombing, 32 of which have been utterly and completely destroyed, since the beginning of 2014 and until now.

He also mentioned the organized and fierce incitement campaign against civil and international organizations supporting the Palestinian ones. These campaigns were documented through the Israeli observatory of NGOs that work through the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs.

This campaign seeks to distort the image and employees of Palestinians institutions, especially human rights organizations.

 Their process includes fabricating allegations that accuse them of terrorism or corruption to remove their professional and legal legitimacy, which in turn diminishes sources of funding.

Hala Al-Qaishawi Jabr, an Activist, commented on the papers of Al-Arouri and Zaqout, in which she applauded their effort in organizing information, facts, and statistics regarding the roles of civil society organizations in relief and development work.

She highlighted the need to protect the right to form associations in the face of the ongoing Israeli incitement campaign and the imposed restrictions on their work.