News

Election of Board of Trustees chaired by HE Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh and the membership of 19 VIPs from all over the world

PARIS------ September 20, 2011 ------ The institutional assembly of All for Palestine Association was convened at the Arab World Institute in Paris on September 17, 2011 under the title "Palestinians' Contribution to Human Civilization".

At its first meeting, the assembly elected a board of trustees chaired by HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh and membership of 19 other prominent figures from all over the world.

At the first meeting of the Board of Trustees, working committees were formed including a committee to define the criteria of creativity, a committee for the selection of creative persons as well as founding other committees by specializations and geographical regions to gather the names and addresses of highly qualified Palestinian individuals from around the world.

On this occasion, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh, held a press conference in Paris at which he pointed out that the participants in the meeting of the All for Palestine Association represent a host of intellectuals including creative personalities, scientists, academics and men of literature. They met to discuss how to activate the Association aiming to highlight the Palestinians’ creativity, excellence and contribution to world civilization. This aspect of the Palestinian cause has been quite neglected.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh added "Despite their suffering, Palestinians are creative in all domains and have contributed to modern civilization and its development in terms of innovation, authorship, education, banking and other fields.”

"What we seek, away from politics, is to say to the world that this is a portfolio of the Palestinians showing that they are civilized, worthy of life and worthy of being at the forefront of civilized peoples. The Palestinian people include inventors, artists and creative individuals in addition to others who have obtained academic degrees, awards, world positions and recognition by global institutions."

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh added "On the other hand, we seek to compile statistics on the educational status of the Palestinian people to convey a message to the world that, despite the occupation and injustice, we have the highest ratios of academic degrees holders, professionals, educated and distinguished persons. We should create a database of the names of creative individuals in various fields as well as statistical data reflecting the civilized image of the Palestinians who cannot be eliminated because they are civilized and civilized peoples cannot be eliminated."

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh announced the collection of the names of one thousand creative Palestinian individuals. He added "We have pledged that by 2012 the list will reach 10,000 names of creative Palestinians worldwide in various fields of specializations including poets, painters, singers, writers, bankers, lawyers, inventors and prominent Palestinians in all domains that have added to knowledge and human civilization."

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh expressed his appreciation to France for hosting this French association, which has been set up in accordance with the 1901 Law.

"We will act through a website and a portal on the Internet to enable the world to see with ultimate transparency. We will not hold any meeting except within the electronic space except meetings to agree on work procedures in addition to a central secretariat in Amman," he said.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh referred to the results of the meeting stating that "we have elected a board, chairman and committees and we decided to form sectoral committees such as a committee for Palestinian physicians in the world who have contributed inventions in medicin