For Immediate Release
October 25, 2010
Contact: Dr. Samir Abed-Rabbo Telephone: 214-810-7285, email: drsar56@yahoo.com
DALLAS CONFERENCE LAUNCHES MOVEMENT FOR ONE DEMOCRATIC STATE IN PALESTINE, Discredits claims that Israelis and Palestinians cannot coexist in one state as racist
Dallas- The Movement for One Democratic State in Palestine (ODS) was formally launched at a conference on October 23-24. This effort builds on the foundation made by similar gatherings held in recent years in Madrid, Boston and Haifa.
“This historic conference embodies the growing international acknowledgement that the ‘two state-solution’ to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dead,” said conference organizer Dr. Samir Abed-Rabbo. “Our call for one democratic state offers equality under the law for all Palestinians and Israelis—Christians, Jews, Muslims—in the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan. This is the only way to a sustainable peace because it is based on justice and adherence to international law.”
Conference participants came from all over the United states and reflected the multicultural reality that exists in Palestine/Israel, including African, Hispanic, Jewish and Palestinian- Americans and groups from a broad political spectrum like the Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid of Southern California, The Black Heritage Society, the Latino group LULAC, and various student peace groups. The central achievement of the conference was the adoption of the “Declaration for One Democratic State in Palestine,” the Movements’ organizational structure and action plan.
According to Israeli-American Dr. Yael Korin, “Our movement takes its lead from the successful American civil rights movement and struggle against South African apartheid. Israel cannot claim to be an egalitarian state for all its citizens as long as it insists on institutionalized privilege for its Jewish citizens. The U.S. government’s continued support for what can only be seen as Israeli apartheid within Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories should be opposed by Americans as a corruption of our values of equality and fair play.”
The Movement for ODS believes that the ongoing conflict, its pain, anger, and fear originated in the colonization and wrongful partition of Palestine in 1948 and the injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people. The Movement for ODS represents humanity’s demonstrated capacity to overcome the legacy of bitter strife and it calls on people everywhere to reject beliefs of ethnic supremacy and separation.
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