In the ensuing discussion, one speaker brought up the right of return of Jews to Israel, while Palestinians were denied the right to their own homes in Palestine. She saw a need for a Jewish State as a refuge for Jewish people in the event of persecution. The law of return should be changed into a law of refuge. However, the issue of the position of Palestinians living in Israel had been somewhat neglected by the solidarity movement.

In that context, some speakers questioned whether the two-State solution was correct, and whether one secular, democratic State in which Islam and Judaism were protected would not be better. Others disagreed with that idea, saying a democratic secular State moved away from international law and the position of the United Nations. A point was made that within both Israel and Palestine, a large majority supported a two-State solution, and talk about a one-State solution seemed unrealistic in 2004. Reconciliation was impossible without a political solution.

According to the draft plan of action, adopted by the Conference Steering Committee, internationally coordinated action would be developed to escalate pressure to end the Israeli occupation and achieve the realization of Palestinian rights. To that end, non-governmental and civil society organizations participating in the Conference would work together to educate people and to pressure Governments to move towards strict enforcement of the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice and the resolutions of the General Assembly that call for self-determination of the Palestinian people, stopping and reversing Israeli settlements and dismantling the separation wall.

If the occupying Power continued to violate international obligations, the participants would, as civil society, initiate divestment and other targeted sanctions against the occupying Power, and urge governments to impose restrictions including arms bans, withdrawal of economic privileges, bans against items produced by illegal settlements, travel restriction on violators of the Geneva Convention and other components of international law.

The envisioned Plan of Action identified three important dates for global mobilization, advocacy and education campaigns to end the Israeli occupation: 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People; 16 April 2005 as Palestinian Prisoners Day; and 5 June 2005 as the anniversary of the 1967 occupation. It urged international civil society and national and regional non-governmental organization coalitions to consider support for other actions, including tribunals to examine cases of violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the occupied Palestinian territory; convening an international civil society conference to take up broader issues involved in defending Palestinian rights; and campaigns providing direct support for Palestinians in the occupied territory.

He expressed the hope that the plan of action would serve as a catalyst for new, broad-based campaigns of action by civil society, with the Conference Steering Committee continuing to play a vital coordinating role. "After all, civil society becomes much, much more than a sum of its constituent organizations if they share a common purpose and strategy and coordinate their actions", he said.

This morning, the Conference had a panel discussion on the theme "The role of civil society: From alleviating human suffering to advocating the end of occupation". Speakers focused, among other things, on mobilizing public opinion in support of the Palestinian people; the parallels between the anti-apartheid struggle and the struggle for Palestinian rights; the rights of Palestinians living in Israel; the role of a Jewish State as a refuge for persecuted Jews; and the role churches could play in fostering understanding of and support for the Palestinian cause.

DENNIS BRUTUS, Professor (emeritus), African Studies, University of Pittsburgh, focused on the role of civil society, drawing parallels between the struggle for Palestinian rights and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. He said the experience of confronting the apartheid regime, which had led to the ending of that system, could be useful as a model for activism in the current conflict. Activism must extend over a broad range of issues and must be undertaken on an international scale. Global awareness and global activism must be created.

He said the apartheid regime was a system controlled by the white minority with the exclusion of the non-white majority from political power. The campaign against apartheid had been waged both internally and externally. External activities included political action, including activities by the United Nations, church organizations, labour organizations and humanitarian/philanthropic organizations. A major element of the campaigns was the focus on the predicament of political prisoners. One of the most effective activities had been the focus on economic boycott activities. The divestment campaigns had contributed significantly to weakening the apartheid regime to the point where negotiations were begun with the liberation movement. He stressed that all those activities had been conducted in conjunction with, or consultation with the liberation movement.

In the Palestinian/Israeli context, the focus of the struggle was currently on the wall, he said. Current activism in civil society should focus on a just solution and ending the occupation. In the process, one should focus on the persistent violation by the Israeli Government of resolutions adopted by the United Nations. The central issue in building a campaign against the occupation was the issue of political prisoners. The idea of conducting a campaign for economic isolation of the Israeli Government had already been brought up, but should include other forms of pressure such as academic, cultural and sports boycotts.

He said that the various campaigns against the apartheid regime had contributed to creating a climate of international awareness of the nature of the racist and oppressive system of apartheid and had led to general outrage and a demand for its international isolations. Something similar should happen in the case of the Palestinian struggle. There was a need for a global conference in support of the Palestinian people. Out of such a conference must come a call for global action, a broad-based and many-faceted attack on a system that was inhuman, racist and biased, a campaign as effective as the campaign against apartheid. The message of the Secretary-General had not included recognition of the dominant role of the United States in supporting Israel. If the United States could indeed obstruct serious discussion on the issue of Israel, it might be necessary to create an alternative forum where that issue could be discussed.

He had learned with appreciation about the many initiatives that civil society had spearheaded in the past year, which were aimed at alleviating human suffering, mobilizing public opinion in support of the Palestinian people, and finding a peaceful solution to the decades-old conflict. Although not a substitute for the political process between governments, civil society initiatives had been pushing the envelope of what had been hitherto thought possible, proving wrong the sceptics and nay-sayers. In times of prolonged conflict, it was important for voices of reason to be heard, voices which sometimes could be drowned out by the "strident clamour of extremist rhetoric".