TEHRAN The TEHRAN TIMES conducted interviews with some participants in the NGO-sponsored International Seminar in Support of the Human Rights of Palestinians which was held here yesterday.

The director general of the Al-Rissala Health Care Association within the Lebanese movement told the daily, "We should support and give the highest priority to the Palestinian struggle because if the Intifada were to die there would be no Palestine and no Qods."

Hassan Hamdan added: "We attended the Tehran conference to help Palestinians in their revolution since this revolution is supported by the Lebanese campaign against the Zionists. The Tehran conference can have a positive impact on the process of the Intifada with Iran as the first country to hold such a conference."

Martha Mundy, a British senior lecturer in anthropology, was also in Iran for the conference. She came with the Lebanese delegation from Beirut. She has been working with European groups for more than thirty years on the issue of Palestinian solidarity.

She said: "I believe the Tehran conference is really a welcome thing for it is very important to reinternationalize the struggle to find a solution to the Palestine conflict, which has been held by the United States of America in recent years."

She added that the NGOs play a significant role in supporting the Palestinian Intifada. For instance, she said, "Today it is possible to have access to all the detailed information on what is going on in Palestine through the Internet. This information transmission is basically done by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Furthermore, there are lots of NGOs that work in the area of education in Palestine and have international links."

Fadia Osman el-Assaad, president of the Lebanese Union for Child Welfare and the vice president of the Lebanese Women's Council, told the TEHRAN TIMES: "I believe we should all help the Palestinian nation in the name of humanity. The brutality committed by Zionists against (Palestinian) women and children should stop immediately and I think the democratic world should help toward this end."

"We are after establishing national laws for the children, but of course Israel would continue its violation of such laws," she added.

"The U.S. should pay more attention to justice and should care for human rights," she further said, and insisted that it was the duty of the United Nations to make Israel stop its violence immediately for the sake of humanity.

Likewise, Professor Georges Jabbour, former adviser to the late president of Syria, Hafez Assad, condemned the dubious policy of the United States of supporting Israel and neglecting its violations of human rights committed in the occupied lands. He also praised the initiative of holding the Tehran conference in support of the Palestinian Intifada, and expressed hope that the conference would come out with definite resolutions in further support of the Palestinians. He also expressed hope it could help put an end to the conflict and establish peace in the region.

Samireh Havvaz of the Lebanese Cultural Committee said the NGOs, as representatives of their countries, can put pressure on Israel to observe international resolutions and stop violating their human rights.

She added: "We can't expect the Palestinians to stop their struggle against the Zionist regime for as long as they have not liberated their homeland."

The U.S. has always supported Israel and its moves in the occupied lands of Palestine, she added. The Chairman and Managing Director of the Lebanese Continental Council, Fadi F. Madi, said, "We are here to support the Palestinian Intifada along with the Iranian nation and people from all over the world. We are supporting the Intifada because we believe it is the continuation of the Lebanese Islamic resistance movement."

The NGOs have a great responsibility to bear on the issue of Palestine, he further said, expressing hope that since nongovernmental organizations are close to the Palestinians they could do something for them.

"Of course Iran is quite different now, and it is the first country that can really support Palestinians. We hope that the Tehran conference would bring us more power and force to stand against Israel and support the Palestinian Intifada," he concluded.

A Palestinian woman, Fatima, who has come to Iran for medical treatment, said that Qods does not belong to Palestine alone, but to the entire Muslim world. All Islamic countries, particularly Arab states, should help Palestinians in their uprising and make Israel's forces leave the occupied lands, she stressed.

She added that the conference would most probably make the Intifada stronger and give hope to Palestinians to continue their resistance against Israel. But Israel and the Zionist regime do not agree to the holding of the conference.

She also expressed appreciation for Iran's help and support for the Palestinians.

Iranian Majlis deputy, Ms. Elaheh Koolaee, also told the TEHRAN TIMES that the NGOs have played an international role in defending the rights of the Palestinians. She said: "Unfortunately, due to the Zionist influence in Western economic and political arenas, the role of the NGOs have not been manifested."

"Iran has arranged this seminar in order to gather all NGOs and make their role more effective," she said.

Koolaee added that despite their apparent support of human rights, countries such as the United States act selectively when dealing with the issue."

Meanwhile, another expert in Islamic affairs said: "The conference gives hope to all Muslims."

The Pakistani Sunni cleric, Mowlana Abdul Qoddus, said, "Iran has been very attentive to the issue of Palestine from the very first days of the victory of the Islamic Revolution and has held seminars and conferences in this regard."

"The current conference will draw the attention of the world, the world of Islam in particular, to the issue of Palestine and will unveil the Israeli atrocities and oppression of Palestinians."

Iranian Majlis Speaker Mahdi Karrubi here Monday opened the NGO session of the Tehran pro-Intifada conference. He called on the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the world at large to voice support for the Palestinians and opposition to current Israeli-created violence in Palestine.

Karrubi, addressing the inaugural session of the International Seminar on Supporting Human Rights of Palestinians, said that no doubt the world is witnessing one of the most sensitive historical periods dedicated to the defense of the very basic legitimate rights of a people subjected to a new form of brutality.

He said world freedom lovers are expected to defy tyranny and usurpation.

He added that what has brought world freedom lovers together in this conference, irrespective of their political motivation, is their all-out support for the rights of the oppressed Palestinians.

Events in occupied Palestine over the past few months and the Zionist regime's brutal aggression in the light of U.S. support, and Western indifference toward the issue, have hurt sentiments of many freedom lovers, he said.

Denial of the very basic rights of the Palestinian people and attacks on the most vulnerable of the global community, i.e. children and patients, are not something to be overlooked by any official or organization, he added.

He further said that the escalation of tension in Palestine has its roots in the compulsory mass exodus of Palestinians over the past decade.

Also on the sidelines of the Tehran conference, Karrubi met with parliament speakers of Malaysia, Lebanon and Palestine here yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Western Agence France-Presse (AFP) claimed yesterday that most of the participants in the NGO conference were mostly Iranians. But the agency admitted that delegations from 35 countries attended the conference.

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