The MEWANDO network was created under the framework of an International Seminar held in Belén in August of 2003.The meeting’s objective was to analyze the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as part of “military globalization,” in order to seek common resistance strategies. The International Meeting of Palestinian, Israeli and Euopean social movements which created the framework for extending this process to the Basque Country took place in Bilbao in October of 2003 and issued the following formulation, which remains as a point of departure for MEWANDO’s work:
MEWANDO should facilitate a space which would permit Palestinians and/or Israelis to disclose their projects and activities and develop international strategies and alternatives to the present reality of occupation and violence, based on the recognition of the basic rights of the Palestinian people, through the following wording:
An immediate end to Israeli occupation,
The proclamation of a viable Palestinian state,
The return of all refugees,
The liberation of all prisoners,
In order to encourage a network of social movements and a work agenda that allows for the coordination of agreed-upon activities to advance along the lines of said objectives.
A focus developed from the Bilbao meeting, oriented toward the promotion of truthful and expanded awareness of the extreme situation under which people live in Palestine, and the exercise of consequent pressure in the national and international arena in order to achieve the application of measures that could guarantee a just and lasting peace in the region. Social and institutional entities would be involved, with a special emphasis on defending the role of civil society in the region.
MEWANDO will try to play a dynamic and facilitating role in building solidarity and sensitivity toward the situation in the Middle East in and from the territory of the Basque Country, always with close state and international coordination, especially toward the Middle East. The signing in 2005 of an agreement later renewed and in effect until March 2009 with the Department of Housing and Social Affairs of the Basque Government, consolidated this joint effort. Always under the logic that it is local organizations that exercise their rights and the Northern organizations which try to support them and amplify their echo and impact.
