Putting Palestinian justice on the international agenda

In January, Thailand became one of the more than 100 countries to recognise an independent Palestine – one that lives in peace beside Israel. Then in July, the United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace was held at the UN offices in Bangkok. The Thailand chapter of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), a UK-based advocacy group promoting justice for the Palestinians, actively lobbied for the status change and also promoted interest in the UN event.

And in late October, Nick Ferriman, vice chair of PSC-Thailand, after a short statement bringing attention to the “long, dark history” of certain elements of US foreign policy, handed over a petition of about 2,500 signatures to encourage the cessation of “Israeli attacks on the fundamental rights of the Palestinians”, to the US ambassador to Thailand in a Q&A session at Mahidol University following her lecture on the 2012 presidential election. 

What is regularly characterised as the US’s bias in favour of Israel, at the expense of the aspirations of Palestinians to fashion a state of their own, as promised in UN resolutions, is seen as one of the severest impediments to lasting peace between the two peoples, who, after all, are destined to remain neighbours.

Late last year, when UNESCO voted to admit Palestine as a member of the organisation, the US responded by cutting off more than US$80 million to the agency, whose members had overwhelmingly voted to admit the Palestinians, even though they knew it would trigger US retaliation.

PSC-Thailand states that it “exists to create awareness in Thailand of the injustices being constantly inflicted on the Palestinians since the imposition of Israel more than sixty years ago, and to solicit support for them in their struggle for their human rights, their human dignity and the creation of a viable, independent, sovereign and contiguous state of Palestine”.

The most recent major event in the kingdom touching on this tinderbox issue was a function commemorating the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, late last month. The day is marked every November 29 with events around the world. On that day, an event was held for the second year in a row at Bangkok’s UN offices.

The event took place in the shadow of the latest flare up between Hamas and Israel. In this latest exchange of fire, many more Palestinian lives were lost than Israeli, due to the latter’s disproportionate military responses.,which has often been the case.

Much work remains for PSC-Thailand to promote local knowledge of the complexities of the issue, and overcome the misunderstandings the conflict has generated here and around the world. The few postings covering speeches by the organisation’s leaders and members on YouTube have not garnered much interest; all videos uploaded from the local chapter of PSC are many millions shy of PSY’s record-setting megahit on the social networking website.

PSC-Thailand holds meetings in Bangkok once every six weeks, which are open to members and sympathisers, and are also regularly attended by diplomats from local missions representing nations such as Malaysia and South Africa. In between the less scintillating agenda items that are addressed and gavelled one by one – such as the regular financial report and approval of new members – are potentially significant areas for proactive development, such as collaborative efforts with the Thai Muslim Students’ Association and events held at Thai universities aimed at educating students about the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

After getting a phone call expressing concern from the UN, it was brought up in the last meeting how PSC-Thailand should go about the delicate matter of scrapping a planned speech at the November 29 event by a representative of Al-Quds International Council of Thailand, which is labelled by some states as a terrorist organisation.

Since its founding five years ago, PSC-Thailand has been busy attempting to win local hearts and minds, and refuting stereotypical associations between the Palestinian cause and terrorism. Indeed, PSC-Thailand is helping to slowly drive home a message that’s becoming more internationally accepted year by year: that the onus is on Israel to live up to its international obligations, including ending the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are supposed to constitute the state of Palestine along with the Gaza Strip, which Israel quit in 2005. It is this vision of Palestine that more and more UN member states indeed now recognise, based on borders as they were before the 1967 war.

Of course, there was other big news about Palestine on November 29. In New York, against the strong objections of Israel and the US, Palestine was officially accepted as a non-member state at the UN. The overwhelmingly lopsided vote – 138 for, nine against and 41 abstentions – allows for the possibility of Palestine making charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court.

“Justice always prevails,” says Stuart Ward, chair of PSC-Thailand. “And we’re on the side of justice.”

 

Carleton Cole is a writer and former Nation staffer based in Bangkok.