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The achievements of the reconciliation campaign
The Palestinian Center organised the popular campaign for national reconciliation immediately after the hateful division of 2007, through which it carried out many activities and events continuing until now, as follows:
- Running a signature campaign that reached 250,000 signatures calling for an end to the division.
- Organising a sports marathon in which two of those injured as a result of the events of the division, one from each of the two parties, took part, as a call from them to end the division for the sake of the higher national interest.
- Forming the coalition of national forces to end the division since 2013, which is made up of more than 100 members from political figures, journalists, intellectuals, experts, civil society organisations, women's organisations and youth groups, to call for an end to the division.
- Making field visits to the families of the victims of the division with the participation of the coalition's members and a group of mukhtars and released prisoners, to call for waiving personal claims for the sake of the national interest.
- Organising the tolerance ceremony, which brought together many of the families of the victims of the division, who affirmed their support for the Palestinian cause and their overcoming of the difficult feelings the division left with regard to their relatives, in 2013.
- The Palestinian Center succeeded in bringing together the student frameworks from the various Palestinian universities in a closed summer camp for three days to discuss political issues away from partisanship, hosting a number of political figures in addition to organising recreational items, in 2013. This camp helped in creating good and friendly social relations among the student frameworks.
- The signing of the first document among the student frameworks to strengthen freedom of expression inside the Palestinian universities in the Gaza Strip, considering it the first step towards encouraging the signing of the national reconciliation agreement, in January 2014.
- Organising poetry evenings, exhibitions and sports competitions in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip aiming at strengthening the culture of dialogue and civil peace and at strengthening national reconciliation.
- The signing of a document criminalising political arrest in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with the participation of released prisoners.
- Organising many educational sessions at Palestinian schools and universities in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to call for accepting the other and for civil peace.
The impact the Centre has made in this campaign
Making a major breakthrough in this field is not easy, because it is certainly the result of political decisions above the capacity of civil society organisations to break through. But with the passing of time the participation of the representatives of the political parties in the workshops and conferences the Centre holds has become greater, after their participation had been very weak. The Centre has also been keen to focus its work on the groups of the local community so that the pressure on the political leaderships comes from them, particularly as they are the party that always pays the price of political disputes and squabbles, which greatly affect the course of their social and economic lives.
The obstacles the Centre faces in carrying out its role In the field of national reconciliation, it is the state of frustration present in the Palestinian street and their unwillingness to take part in the activities supporting reconciliation, given their loss of trust in the political leaderships.
The shortcomings in civil society's performance It is working separately: every organisation works in the field of national reconciliation separately, and there is no collective work bringing together all civil society organisations to call for national reconciliation. The role of civil society organisations would be much stronger if they came together and united in order to call for an end to the division.
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