June 9^th. The General Board of the National Authority for Disasters Risk Mitigation in Palestine held its annual meeting in Ramallah where Wasef Eriqat, Chairman of the National Authority presented a speech in which he welcomed the guests and thanked the members of the General Body for their efforts to serve the Palestinian society and the building of its capacities to withstand disasters. He also thanked all those who supported the Board including the Palestinian Prime Minister and An-Najah National University represented by its Earth Sciences and Seismic Engineering Center (ESSEC).

Moreover, Eriqat congratulated the Board for electing Dr. Jalal Dabbeek, Director of the ESSEC, as member in the Seismic Building Code during the third session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction which was held in Geneva on May 10^th in which 168 countries participated.

Following that, the new administrative board held a meeting in which positions were assigned among the members as follows: Wasef Eriqat as Chairman, Dr. Dabbeek as Vice Chairman, Khaled Atyani as Secretary and Engineer Arafat Buziyeh as Treasurer. Other members included: Nariman Awwad, Ali Eriqat, Engineer ‘Uhood Enayeh, Mohammad Hisham Baker, Engineer Hussein Natour, Engineer Lutfi Abu Hashish, Dr. Hayder Abu Ghoush, Engineer Adel Odeh and Engineer Saleh Al-Sahouri.

At the end of the meeting, the participants emphasized their determination to carry on their efforts with respect to developing and enhancing Palestine’s abilities and commitment to international standards with respect to capacity building, encouraging voluntary work and abide by the International Strategy on Disasters Management and Hyogo Framework for Action.