Recommendations for the development of agricultural committees and their role at the national level
Ramallah- the Union of Agricultural Work Committees organized agricultural committee’s conference with a huge participation of farmers, agricultural committees, and local civil organizations to discuss the formation of Palestinian peasant movement, and the development of the committees’ work at the national level
The participants agreed on the importance of the development of the agricultural committees’ working and the need to develop a comprehensive action plan for the year of 2016. Also, they agreed on the importance of activating the role of women and youth in agricultural committees, and forming a coordination committee to supervise the implementation of these recommendations.
The conference included several presentation highlighting the important role of the UAWC and its commitment to the Palestinian farmers’ issue and their sufferings, where UAWC’s acting director, Fuad Abu Saif showed the importance of the agricultural committees at the national level and the importance of institutionalizing these committees to enable them to continue with their role in addressing the Palestinian farmers’ challenges. In addition to the importance of the role of the UAWC and its committees in addressing the Palestinian National Authority’s policies, especially Income Tax rules that adds burden on small scale farmers and undermine the Palestinian steadfastness on their lands.
On the same context, Muharram Barghouthi, stressed on the UAWC’s roles in confronting all Israeli projects to confiscate more Palestinian owned lands.
The agricultural committees’ representative, Ahmad Al-Asa, stressed on the importance of agricultural committees in the agricultural sector as well as he focused on the great role played by female farmers in Palestine.
Abdul Razeq Farraj, UAWC’s Director of Administration, confirmed that the UAWC is grassroots organization, and it will continue with its commitments to the Farmers’ issues and their struggles.
Afaf Fanoun, agricultural committees’ member, focused on the UAWC’s role to develop protection mechanism for the Palestinian farmers that passively affected their lives and source of incomes.
Ali Hasounah, UAWC’s chief of board of directors, focused on the UAWC’s success as the only Arab member in International Peasant Movement (La Via Campesina), which holds 200 million farmers, and its success to raise the Palestinian farmers issue to the World.
It is important to note that this conference came within “Protect our Right” project, which is funded by Norwegian People’s Aid.