Cape Town - Fragmented Palestinian political parties and civil society organisations met outside Cape Town on Tuesday to learn more about the anti-apartheid movement’s transition to democracy.
The five-day meeting, organised by the Cape Town-based non-profit Institute of Palestine and South Africa (IPSA), was held at a retreat in Franschhoek.
IPSA director Anis Daraghma said they had brought together Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and West Bank who would otherwise find it difficult to meet.
Palestinians living in other countries, such as Lebanon and Jordan, are also participating in the meeting.
Daraghma said Palestinians chose to meet in “neutral” South Africa because they “trust the country” and want to learn from its grass roots struggle against apartheid.
“South Africans are the right people to be with. We value them. It provides them (delegates) with inspiration.”
The meeting’s agenda states it is “not aimed at creating or replacing authorities in Palestine” but held to look at “external forces and alliances that continue to affect, and sometimes even hijack our overall political discourse”.
“The current political discourse has been ineffective and limits our ability to develop a vision for the liberation of our people,” continues the agenda.
“What is needed is a new way of thinking, new mechanisms and strategies towards an attainable, practical solution for the people of Palestine.”
Its outcome would be to “help in creating a framework of national consensus on key political stumbling blocks at the national level”.
Daraghma said the meeting would aim to overcome Palestinian factionalism and tackle national issues.
“We want to build trust between the parties,” said Daraghma.
Mohamed Kabha, an activist with Youth For One Democratic State, which is based in Israel, said the meeting was the first time he sat in the same room with Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
Kabha said Palestinians were the “first obstacle to our unity”.
“We have to change our thinking,” he said.
“We have not thought of ourselves as one people because we have been divided into different territories (by Israel). We have adopted this thinking.”
Daraghma said three more meetings were planned: One later this year and two next year.
The meetings are facilitated by a consultancy, In Transformation Initiative (ITI), which works in countries dealing with conflict.
ITI’s managing director Ivor Jenkins, who worked previously with the Institute for Democracy, said they are “not telling Palestinians what to do”.
Another ITI director is Roelf Meyer who was the National Party negotiator who worked in the first democratic government under former president Nelson Mandela.
Meyer reflected at the closed-door meeting on the negotiations that were undertaken before democratic elections were held in 1994.
Cape Argus