<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[ei: Palestinian students claim right &#8220;to participate in shaping of our&nbsp;destiny&#8221;]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11754.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29"><img src='https://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/article.jpg' alt='' /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span class="text14"><strong>Press Release, <em>General Union of Palestinian Students,</em> 27 January 2011 </strong></p>
<p><span class="content"> <em>The following statement was issued on  27 January 2011 by students engaged in a sit-in protest at the London  office of the Palestine Liberation Organization delegation to the United  Kingdom:</em></p>
<p>We, Palestinian youth of the General Union of Palestinian Students,  gather here today in honor of the integral part our union has played in  the struggle for liberation. Since its official foundation more than  five decades ago, GUPS has been at the forefront of mobilizing our  people and regenerating our commitment to Palestine, especially in times  of national danger and depletion. We are at the office of the Palestine  Liberation Organization delegation to the United Kingdom in order to  reassert our inalienable rights, and today we claim our right to  democratically participate in the shaping of our destiny. We begin a  national initiative to campaign for direct elections to the Palestinian  National Council on the clear understanding that only a reformed  national representative institution, that includes the will of all  Palestinians, those struggling in the homeland and those struggling in  exile, can create a representative Palestinian platform, and restore the  PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.</p>
<p>In the spirit of national unity that brings us here today, we remind  Palestinian youth everywhere of the National Reconciliation Document of  the Prisoners of 2006, issued from the Occupier&#8217;s prisons from the  leaders of all political parties. Its second point of national unity  urgently calls for the reactivation of the PLO through its democratic  mechanisms, enfranchising all Palestinians, the millions of refugees in  exile, and those inside. We are all Palestinian citizens, we all have  the right to vote. We declare here that we insist upon this right to  form our national institutions.</p>
<p>We announce, in the spirit of national unity that brought us here, and  with the aim of leaving behind factionalism in order to liberate our  homeland and return to our homes:</p>
<p>1.The call for direct elections to the Palestinian National Council, the  parliamentary body that gives authority to and creates the political  platform, strategies and policies, for the Palestine Liberation  Organization, to be held one year from this day, in January 2011.</p>
<p>2. The inclusion of all our people wherever they now live &#8212; in the homeland, the <em>shatat</em> [diaspora], in the prisons and the camps of refuge in that election.</p>
<p>3. That this new representative body, reflective of all sectors of our  people, reform and reactivate the PLO institutions so that they embody  the will of the Palestinian people as a whole, in accordance with the  principle of direct elections.</p>
<p>We urge all Palestinians at this critical moment to join our call for  representation, and to take up our historic responsibility in the  struggle for liberation, only on the basis of popular sovereignty. We  begin the campaign through our national institutions and our  associations, in the spirit of our united love of our homeland and the  principles that bind us, to restore our PLO as the legitimate voice of  the Palestinian people.</p>
<p><strong>Related Links</strong></span></span></p>
<ul><span class="text14"><span class="content"></p>
<li><a href="http://ploembassysitin.tumblr.com/">Palestine Sit-In London blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/691.shtml">BY TOPIC: Leaked Palestine Papers reveal diplomatic secrets</a></li>
<p></span></span></ul>
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<p><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11754.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29">ei: Palestinian students claim right &#8220;to participate in shaping of our destiny&#8221;</a>.</p>
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