Efforts to convene a popular conference for Palestinians in the United States on August 8, 2008 continue unabated. It has been little over a year since the call for a popular conference for the Palestinian people in the US was circulated. Since then, the response has been, for the most part, enthusiastic. More meetings were convened. More ideas were exchanged. Students, youth, workers, housekeepers, artists, and teachers who spearheading this endeavor recognize the imperative of holding a community-wide meeting of Palestinian Americans for the purpose of making our community’s contribution to the Palestinian struggle more effective and united.

The conference will be an arena for the larger sector of our community to assert its voice for a Free Palestine, and is support of persecuted Palestinians, whether they live in Gaza, Haifa, Nablus, Nazareth, Baghdad, Lebanon, Chicago, or Tampa. Equally important, the conference will prove wrong those who are urging the Palestinian people to forfeit its legitimate national and human rights due to an unfavorable balance of power.

Palestinians in the US are doubly obligated to assume a central role in the struggle for a Free Palestine—they constitute one of the most affluent Palestinian communities in the shataat, and their country of residence, the United States, has been actively engaged in subverting and destroying the Palestinians’ rights, aspirations, and lives.

Therefore, we call on our fellow Palestinians and their supporters in the US to join this much-needed effort to unite and maximize the effectiveness of our community. It is time for us to transcend the self-destructive fragmentation and inter-organizational animosities that continue to afflict our ranks, taking as our terms of reference the common aspirations of our people, whether in exile or under occupation-- self determination, equality, implementation of the right of return, and ending the occupation and colonization of Palestine.

I look forward to seeing you in August.

Get involved and participate in the efforts to organize the Popular Conference. For more information: contact conference@palestineconference.org