Al.Papariga raises Palestinian issue in meeting with the President of the Republic

President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias on Tuesday January 14 received KKE�s General Secretary Aleka Papariga, who briefed him on her recent trip to the Palestinian territories.

The visit to Palestine was took place between 3-5 of January, at the invitation of the Palestinian People's Party. In the delegation of KKE participated also Dimitris Koutsoumpas, member of the Political Bureau, Ilias Lengeris, member of the Central Committee and Eleni Mavrouli, journalist of Rizospastis.

The delegation of KKE realized meetings with the General Secretary of the Palestinian Peoples� Party Bassam Ahmad Salhi, and other cadres of the party and visited local branches of the PPP and its youth organization.

A series of meetings were held with various statesmen: with Minister of Labour Mr. Mohammed Barghouthi and the Minister of Tourism Joudeh George Murqos as well as with representatives of all parliamentary factions including Mr. Abdalla Abdalla (Fatah), Mrs Khaleda Jarar (PFLP), Mr. Salam Fayyadh (Third Way), Mr. Aiman Daraghmeh (Hamas), Mr. Bassam Al Salhi and Mr. Qais Abd al-Karim (The Alternative � joint list of PPP and DFLP), and the Mayors of Bethlehem Victor Batarseh and of El-Khather Mr. Adnan Sbeih.

Aleka Papariga also had discussions with representatives of Fatah, namely with Mr. Abbas Zaki, responsible for the international relations, Mr. Adnan Samara, vice president of the revolutionary council and Mr. Abdalla Abdalla

During their stay the KKE delegation had talks with Issam Makhoul, General Secretary of the CP of Israel, and it also met with Efrem Davidi, General Secretary of of Labour (Histadrut).

Speaking to the press after the meeting with the President of the Republic Aleka Papariga said that if Greeks suffered so much because of few years of german-italian occupation one can imagine the hardships that Palestinians face living under occupation for decades. During the meeting Aleka Papariga raised the issue of the 680-kilometre wall being constructed in the West Bank by Israel, stressing that the Israel with this barrier is determining the de facto political borders in the region and noted that the US promotes a solution suitable for Israel. That is instead of a unified Palestinian state, with unified borders and territory, to establish a Israeli or US protectorate in the form of separated �cantons� inside the Israeli territory.

She concluded criticizing the lack of interest that the Greek and the other European governments demonstrate about the Palestinian issue.

Info by the International Section