April 1, 2002

A civil mission headed to Palestine on March 27th to celebrate the Day of Land and to demonstrate its solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people.

78 citizens -- French, Swiss, three representatives of Via Campesina (Mario Lill of the MST, Doris Hernandez, of Honduras, and Paul Nicholson, of Spain), along with other citizens of Italy, Belgium, Spain and other countries -- voluntarily decided on the night of March 28th to go to Ramallah, which is beseiged and threatened by the occupation.Ê They protested in front of the offices of the Palestinian Authority and announced that they had decided to remain in Ramallah as long as the Israeli offensive continued.

Tired of the cowardice of the European governments who close their eyes, these men and women are in occupied territories, denouncing the policy of the installation of terror by the government of Ariel Sharon. Perfectly aware of the danger, the protestors are currently shut in a hotel in Ramallah, three hundred meters from the main headquarters of Yasser Arafat, surrounded by Israeli tanks.

It is symptomatic that yet again civil society is forced to take disproportionate risks to challenge politicians.