June 19th, 2007 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum, Separation Barrier

As reported in NGO Monitor’s blog on June 7, 2007, the Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum was held in Florence this week. As reported in the British Guardian newspaper, the “Tripartite Conference” of Israelis, Palestinians and Europeans united around a call it issued to “accept the Arab Peace Initiative (which expresses the readiness of the Arab world to accept the State of Israel and normalize relations with it after a withdrawal to the 1967 borders, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and an agreed-upon solution to the refugee problem) as a basic framework for peace negotiations”.

Although the forum in its official declaration called for end to the inter-Palestinian violence in Gaza, the statement singles out Israel to cease “unilateral action, including settlement expansion, the building of the wall on Palestinian territories and unilateral measures in East Jersualem that jeopardize the two-state solution.” The declaration makes no demands on the Palestinians to dismantle its terror infrastructure nor to halt the onslaught of Qassam rocket fire from Gaza.

Italy’s prime minister, Romano Prodi, addressed the closing session of the conference, responding to questions from the co-chairs of the Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum. The Guardian reports that “while Prodi was very supportive of the initiative, and promised to meet with representatives of the joint Peace NGO Forum on his next visit to the region, he was not very forthcoming in terms of specifics.”