MK Aida Touma-Suleiman
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Arab MK to speak at UN conference marking 50 years of 'occupation'
'My job, as the representative of a public that supports the end of the occupation is to make my voice heard,' says Aida Touma-Suleiman of the Joint List; UN Ambassador Danon says working to prevent her participation.
Joint List MK Aida Touma-Suleiman is scheduled to speak at a UN conference marking 50 years of the "Israeli occupation."
The conference, organized by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), will be entitled "United Nations Forum to Mark Fifty Years of Occupation" and held at the UN headquarters in New York on June 29-30.
The first day of the conference will be entitled "Ending the Occupation: The Path to Independence, Justice and Peace for Palestine," while the second day will be entitled "Ending the Occupation: Creating the Space for Human Rights, Development, and a Just Peace" and include a discussion on "Enforcement of international law and accountability."
MK Aida Touma-Suleiman (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
Among the conference's speakers and panelists are experts from Israel and the "State of Palestine," UN officials, representatives of UN member states, human rights organizations, academics and journalists.
The executive director of left-wing NGO B'Tselem, Hagai El-Ad, will also speak at the conference, as will Israel's former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, PLO official and peace negotiator Saeb Erekat, and MK Touma-Suleiman.
Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon slammed Touma-Suleiman's intention to participate in the conference and said he will work to prevent her from attending.
"It's a disgrace that a member of Israel's Knesset dishonors her position and is working along with the Palestinians to harm Israel at the UN. Her expected participation at an anti-Israeli event is crossing all red lines," Danon said.
Touma-Suleiman said in response, "Danon's statement is crossing all red lines. It's time to expose the ugly face of the occupation. My job, as the representative of a public that supports the end of the occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital, is to make my voice heard on every stage possible."
