APN Gives a Fundraising Dinner Dedicated to the One Million Trees Project

APN gave a dinner on August 23th,2004 to raise funds for the One Million Trees project currently implemented in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The event was held under the patronage of the Foreign Minister Marwan El-Muasher. A special guest at the event was Dr Arun Gandhi the grandson of India’s late spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi.

The event included the following:

•  Welcoming speech by Mr. Azmi Shaheen.

•  Speech by Dr Arun Gandhi, the Founding Director of the M.K.Gandhi
  Institute for Non-violence.

• Speech by Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher.

• Speech by Dr. Ismael Dueik, the General Manager of the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees.

• Speech by Mr. Mohammad Al-Attar, the Executive Director of Palestinians for Peace and Democracy.

• Speech by Mrs Razan Zuaiter, the Director of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature.

• Lute performed by Ms. Deema Sweidan.

• Display of photos of the Wall Israel is building in the occupied West Bank.

 In his speech, Dr Gandhi said that what Israel has done in Palestine is to build a Wall of Hate that is so violently and insensitively conceived that it has destroyed people’s hearts and homes;” The Wall of Hate has not only divided families but ruined many of them economically, socially and otherwise. You are all aware of the pain and anguish it has caused to innocent people.”
Gandhi said that the purpose of non-violence which he advocates is to awaken people to their power, their freedom and their responsibility.

The Foreign Minister Marwan El-Muasher said planting a million trees in the occupied territories is a proactive response to Israel’s attempts to separate people from their land. He said Jordan had condemned the construction of the Separation Wall which he indicated consolidates Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, devours further Palestinian land, aggravates the suffering of the Palestinian people and imposes a fait accompli on the future shape of the Palestinian state. Muasher said the Wall and the fences will effectively cage Palestinians into Israeli-created ghettos or Bantustans adding that Jordan believes that the Separation Wall is not protecting Israeli citizens inside Israel at all, but instead protecting Israel’s occupation and illegal colonies.

APN Director Razan Zuaiter said Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people and land with more Jewish settlements built on confiscated lands of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In a presentation on the work of APN, Mrs Zuaiter indicated that nearly 7 thousand dunums of Palestinian lands were razed by Israeli bulldozers and more than a million trees uprooted. She spoke of APN’s project to replant trees in those areas and maintain support for the Stop the Wall campaign. She said the impacts of occupations on the environment and agriculture should be on top of the civil societies’ agendas.

Dr. Ismael Dueik, head of the Palestinian Relief Committees (PARC) said nearly 236 thousand trees were replanted in Palestinian lands as part of the one million trees project. He said PARC, a partner to APN, has chosen to struggle by helping the Palestinian farmers hold on to their land, to cultivate and protect it by planting trees, building agricultural routes, preserving water resources and ensuring food security for low-income Palestinian families.                                       

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