Olivier Besancenot, leader of the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA) and 2007 presidential candidate in France, visited the Alternative Information Center (AIC) on 19 April and met with Israeli and Palestinian social justice activists. Besancenot and a delegation of French political activists are currently visiting the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel to learn first hand of the Palestinian situation and to demonstrate their solidarity.

In the meeting, AIC staff member and long-time Israeli activist Reuven Aberjel highlighted current efforts to reinvigorate progressive political activism with in Israel. In Tarabut, a grassroots movement working for wide-ranging social and political change, he and other Palestinian and Israeli activists are seeking to repair the damage that earlier generations of Jewish Israelis have created. “It is our fathers and grandfathers that have created this place as it is, and we trying to be responsible for fixing it,” said Aberjel. Speaking of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ambitions to force all Palestinian citizens to declare loyalty to Israel, Aberjel explained that “rather than demanding loyalty from its citizens in order to take responsibility for their rights, we believe that the state has to be loyal to its citizens in order for citizens to support the state.”

Palestinian citizens participating in the meeting spoke of the numerous barriers they encounter, including the impossible expectation of loyalty to a Jewish Israeli state. “We grow up learning of the European Jewish history—we cry for the Holocaust and for their suffering, but there is never any mention of the 1948 disaster and what happened to the Palestinian people when they came here,” explained one Palestinian activist. "I think that equal citizenship and rights for Palestinians in Israel is a strong step towards peace, and the international community can play a large role in accomplishing this,” she added.

Besancenot and the other delegation members listened intently, asking questions throughout. The meeting was closed with a strong articulation of support for the Palestinian struggle and ending the Israeli occupation. “It has been so important to meet Israeli and Palestinian activists who are fighting to end the occupation and for Palestinian rights,” Besancenot stated. “We do not hear or see any of these arguments or information in the mainstream media and usually have to hear about it from alternative sources” added another delegation member. “We will bring your words back with us to France.”