Conferences and debates

Index / Activities / Conferences and debates / International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 2018

International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 2018

December 03, 20187:00 p.m.

MADRID

Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:00 p.m. Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.

In Arabic, with simultaneous translation into Spanish.

Casa Árabe and the Diplomatic Mission of Palestine in Spain have organized this event, to be held on December 3 for the commemoration of this date.

Mitri Raheb, founder and president of Dar-al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, will be giving a conference on the topic. It will include participation by Mussa Amer Odeh, the Ambassador of Palestine in Spain, and Pedro Martínez-Avial, the General Director of Casa Árabe.

It is not easy to keep hope alive in Palestine today. Seventy-one years have elapsed since the Nakba, the catastrophe which caused the displacement of over 900,000 Palestinians and the destruction of 520 villages. Fifty years later, Israel still occupies the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. At present, Bethlehem is surrounded by a wall measuring over seven meters high, the effects of which have meant a system of segregation in all practicality. The decision by the United States government to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy to that city strikes a blow to the idea of a Jerusalem shared by Israelis and Palestinians.
What is currently at stake is not just the future of a Palestinian state, but the credibility of the international community. Today more than ever, the Palestinian people need international solidarity.

Mitri Raheb is the founder and president of the School of Arts and Culture at Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem. He is the most widely published Palestinian theologian to date, with 16 books, which include: Das Reformatorische Erbe unter den Palaestinensern, I am a Palestinian Christian, Bethlehem Besieged, Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes. His books and numerous articles have been translated into eleven languages up to now. Reverend Raheb is also a social entrepreneur who has founded several NGOs, including the Dar Annadwa Cultural Center, in addition to other civic initiatives at the national, regional and international levels. The multilingual theologian received the Olof Palme Award in 2015 for his courageous, tireless fight against occupation and violence, and for a future Middle East characterized by peaceful co-existence and equality for all. Dr. Raheb has a PhD in Theology from Philipps University in Marburg, Germany.

Since 1977, on November 29 of each year, the UN has commemorated the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The date was selected because of its importance to the Palestinian people, given that three decades earlier, in other words, on that same date in 1947, the United Nations General Assembly enacted Resolution 181, which later came to be known as the “Partition Resolution,” in which the creation of a “Jewish State” and an “Arab State” in Palestine were stipulated, with Jerusalem as an international city. Of the two States foreseen in that resolution, up to now only one has been created: Israel. This anniversary allows the international community to focus its attention on the fact that the matter of Palestine has not yet been resolved.