ADC Announces Briefing on Capitol Hill Featuring Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, Monday February 9th

posted on: Feb 7, 2009

The American- Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee announces a briefing by independent Palestinian legislator Dr. Mustafa Barghouti entitled “Challenging the Status Quo: U.S. Policy in Israel-Palestine” in the Cannon House Office Building on Monday, February 9th.

Co-sponsored by ADC and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) the briefing is a unique and timely opportunity to hear first-hand from Barghouti, an independent Palestinian legislator and human rights activist, about the dire humanitarian and political realities facing Palestinians.

“While my heart still wants to believe that the two-state solution is possible, my brain keeps telling me the opposite, because of what I see in terms of the building of settlements,” Barghouti said in a recent eye-opening “60 Minutes” segment called “Is Peace Out of Reach?”. “I am very worried that what Israel has done has furthered us much further from the possibility of two-state solution…”

Barghouti was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2006, and served as Minister of Information in the short-lived Palestinian unity government of March-June 2007. In 2005, he was a candidate for President of the Palestinian National Authority, finishing second to Mahmoud Abbas.

Barghouti is also head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, which he says managed to get only one convoy of aid to Gaza after waiting 12 days for Israeli permission. In Gaza, 70 members of the relief committee are helping to train volunteers in first aid and operating two ambulances and two mobile clinics.