Report about the establishment of the “Preparatory Committee”

Of the second Haifa Conference

For the Return of the Palestinian Refugees and for the Democratic Secular State in Historic Palestine

28 – 30 / 5 / 2010

A first consultative meeting was held, in response to the initiative of the Abnaa elBalad Movement, on 27/2/2010. It was followed by the second meeting on 19/3/2010 where the “Preparatory Committee” was formally established. About 20 activists from different organizations and movements, as well as independents, took part in each of the meetings.

In its first meeting the Preparatory Committee agreed about the following issues:

• The conference will be held under the title: “For the Return of the Palestinian Refugees and for the Democratic Secular State in Historic Palestine”.
• The conference program will include:

• An opening plenum on Friday evening 28/5
• Workshops for presentations and discussions on Saturday 29/5
• Consultative meetings for the establishment of an international coalition – Sunday 30/5
• The call for the conference will be in the name of the preparatory committee, which will start its activities immediately, with the participation of all the attendees. The committee will prepare a detailed program for the conference and mobilize supporters of the cause and the general public to participate in the conference.
• As a first step we will act to enlarge the preparatory committee in order to include more public figures and known supporters of the cause. For this we will, in consultation with some of the relevant people, write a paper that will define the goals of the conference and the work procedures of the preparatory committee. This paper will be based, among other things, on the Jaffa declaration that was adopted by the preparatory committee of the 1^st Haifa Conference.
• A group of volunteers was established to build the conference’s site on the internet.
• We appeal to those who are willing to participate in the workshops’ panels to present written materials in an early date, as far as it is feasible, so that we can publish some of the conference’s materials even before it is convened.
• The committee will keep contact through a yahoo group.
• A temporary coordinating committee was chosen.
• The next meeting was set for Friday, 9/4/2010, at 17:00