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AIC Denounces Continued Intervention in Forum for a Just Peace in the Middle East |
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Written by The Alternative Information Center (AIC)
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Saturday, 15 December 2007 |
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The Alternative Information Center (AIC) denounces in the strongest
possible manner the continuing undemocratic intervention of the Spanish
Foreign Ministry in the Madrid Forum for a Just Peace in the Middle
East. The AIC particularly denounces last night’s threats aimed at AIC
Program Director Sergio Yahni, member of the Forum’s International
Organising Committee, by representatives of the Ministry.
In complete violation of previous assurances it had given to Forum
organizers, the Spanish Foreign Ministry did not respect the integrity,
independent and democratic nature of the Madrid Forum. Negating the
participatory work and consensual decisions of the Forum’s organizing
committees, the Spanish Foreign Ministry invited to the Forum its own
delegation of Israelis, bypassing committee decisions and the Forum’s
own elected delegation from Israel. This delegation was composed of
Israeli groups unwilling to endorse the Forum’s own reference document,
a mandatory step for all other participants from throughout the world.
This blatant intervention led, on 12 December, to the boycott of this
event by the Palestinian delegation and in its wake, the withdrawal of
the delegations from Israel and other Arab countries.
Spanish police are currently (noon Spanish time, on 15 December)
guarding the entrance to the Forum, and it is unclear who is in
attendance. A large group of protesters, including Palestinian, Israeli
and Spanish delegates who refuse to participate in the Forum as
currently constructed, are being kept out of the Forum venue.
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