Annual conference 2004

The annual conference of the Willy Brandt Center led to an unique meeting between two members of parliament: one of the Palestinian Fatah and the other of the Israeli Labor Party (Avoda). "With the start of the second Intifada I stopped to meet with Israelis", sais Dalal Salameh, youngest member of parliament of the Palestinian Legal Council, in the beginning of her talk with the Israeli member of parliament, Yuli Tamir.

Andrea Nahles, chairwomen of the Willy Brandt Center, was proud of the fact that it was possible to arrange this meeting. "Between the Fateh movements of Arafat and the Avoda, led by Shimon Peres„ exist for years now an official speechlessness." The Willy Brandt Center as trilateral project offers a framework that enabled at least the youth organizations to work officially together."

Dalal Salameh complained about the fact, that in the past four years the focus in the public talk was on figures instead of human beings. "A high number of killed persons is important, then the political impact is greatest", she describes the perversion of a suicide attack. Salameh grew up in the Balata refugee camp and was the first woman there that recognized the Israeli right to exist.
When she was elected into the Legal Council, she started working in the Palestinian-Israeli parliament group. "There, it was important to me to look for common ideas."

Juli Tamir characterized the discussion with Salameh as "highly encouraging". She sharply criticized the politics of Ariel Sharon. Even if she agreed to the withdrawal from Gaza, she describes the "unilateralism" as a great mistake. "To ignore the Palestinians is a wrong an inhuman way of handling."

About 50 Palestinians, Israelis, and Europeans took part in the conference "Decisions for History – Future and Perspectives" on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Willy Brandt Center. In the same occasion, Mattias Ries was bid farewell. During the last 4 years he very successfully established the center. Starting in the beginning of 2005, Heike Kratt as representative of the Jusos took over his job.