IPU President tours Middle East
After convening the Executive Committee in a special session in January to discuss the crisis in Gaza, the IPU President decided to go there in March to verify the situation on the ground for himself. Entering Gaza on 3 March, he saw the results of Operation Cast Lead all around him. Hospitals and schools were in ruins; the once vibrant industrial area in the north was reduced to heaps of smashed concrete and twisted metal. On all sides lay the rubble of ordinary people's homes that had been shelled to pieces by tanks and F16s. Ministries and government offices lay in ruins. The American School in Gaza had taken a direct hit, and shells had landed in the United Nations compound. At a loss for words, Dr. Gurirab expressed his shock at the destruction visible everywhere. He was appalled, he said, at the suffering that had been inflicted on the Palestinian people in Gaza, and especially the thousands of innocent women and children who, once again, had been caught in the line of five.
Dr. Gurirab went on to meet with John Ging, Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) operations in Gaza. Ging briefed the IPU delegation on how UNRWA had coped during and after the violence. They concurred on the need to establish the full truth about what had happened during the conflict, and to ensure that proper reckoning is done.
There can be no hope of doing anything to assist the people of Gaza if food and supplies cannot even enter the territory. Construction materials and spare parts for generators, sewage plants, power infrastructure and medical equipment are all desperately needed. Dr. Gurirab voiced a new call to the Israeli Government to lift its blockade so that basic humanitarian supplies for the people of Gaza could enter the territory and the laborious work of reconstruction could begin. He reiterated his conviction that we must find a way to put an end to the vicious cycle of construction, destruction, re-construction and renewed destruction on the Palestinian territories.
The President talked with political leaders of Hamas and with members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in Gaza. Himself a politician tempered by a long struggle for nationhood, he stated his conviction that a solution to the conflict could only be found by the parties meeting around the negotiation table, not on the battlefield. He also outlined IPU's work in defence of the human rights of the Palestinian members of parliament detained in Israeli prisons, saying that the IPU was doing everything in its power to secure their release from unlawful detention. He added that he was looking forward to starting activities to provide technical support to the Legislative Council as soon as possible.
Talks in the Middle East
At the Sharm el-Sheikh international conference to support the Palestinian economy for the reconstruction of Gaza, Dr. Gurirab met with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas. On 5 March he was received in Ramallah by the Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, Dr. Salam Fayyad, and Palestinian leaders. The President also met with Mr. Saeb Erakat, Head of the Palestine Liberation Organization Negotiations Affairs Department, to talk about the prospects for peace.
Dr. Gurirab was received at the Palestinian Legislative Council by the President of the Fatah parliamentary block, Mr. Azzam Alahmad, and several members of the legislature, where he emphasized the need for the Palestinian parties and factions to reconcile their differences and establish a unity government.
He was also presented with a petition by 1,500 residents of the Al Bustan neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, who had received eviction orders to make way for the demolition of their homes.
Amman and Cairo were also among the stops on the IPU President's itinerary. In Amman he spoke with the Speaker of the Jordanian Parliament, Mr. Abdulhadi Majali, and in Cairo he was received by Dr. Ahmed Fathy Sorour, Speaker of the Egyptian Parliament. He concluded his tour of the Middle East by addressing the Conference of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union in Muscat, chaired by the new President of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Speaker of the Shura Council of Oman, Mr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Issai. He met the Speakers and leaders of parliamentary delegations from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and the UAE. Dr. Gurirab also exchanged views with the Speaker of the Palestine National Council (PNC), Mr. Salim Al-Zanoon.