The Plenipotentiary Conference 2002 (PP02) of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) approved on Wednesday, 10th October, a "Resolution on the Assistance and Support to the Palestinian Authority for rebuilding its telecommunication networks", in a formulation accepted both by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, with the mediation of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Denmark (as EU presidency) and Portugal.
By it, the conference, which is taking place in Marrakech, Morocco, from the 23rd of September to the 18th October, calls upon the ITU Member States to develop efforts towards the preserving and rebuilding of the Palestinian telecommunications infrastructure and facilitating the establishment, at the earliest date, of its own international gateway networks including satellite earth stations, submarine cables, optical fibres and microwave systems, as well as the recovering of the entitlements accruing from incoming and outgoing international traffic.
The resolution further determines that the ITU will allocate necessary funds within available resources for its implementation, while continuing to expand the technical assistance provided to the Palestinian Authority for the development of its telecommunications and providing reports on various experiences in the liberalization and privatisation of telecommunications - and their impacts - in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The ITU secretary-general, the Japanese Yoshio Utsumi, becomes responsible for insuring the implementation of previous resolutions, particularly in relation to the international access code and processing of frequency notification assignment.
In the mediation process in which Portugal participated at the request of both parties, through ANACOM's head of the European Affairs Division, José Toscano, the issues arisen were mainly related to terminology referring to the Israeli-Palestinian "conflict", or even "war" or just "situation", the degree of "damaging" or "destruction" of its telecommunication infrastructures and the references to "Palestinian Authority", the entity, or "Palestine", the country, in which middle-of-the-road terms were usually adopted.
