59th year of Israel’s Occupation of Palestine

In commemoration of the 59th year of Israel’s Occupation of Palestine

Statement of the Preparatory Committee for the Right to Return and Just Peace Conference

Today, we witness the 59th year of Israel’s Occupation of the Palestinian Lands. Since 1948, we have endured the most bitter consequences and tragic impacts on our lives as an occupied nation. Al-Nakba has never represented a mere event in the minds of Palestinians, but an ongoing tragic reality sealed with historic injustice; its consequences have become a benchmark in the narrative of Palestinian modern history.

Almost 60 years have passed since al-Nakba, and all the while we still re-assure the significance of a national and international Palestinian entity to call for our struggle for the Right to Return, to which every Palestinian worldwide and every other body supporting it is accountable.

We affirm that the Right to Return is an absolute basic, inalienable and individual human right; every Palestinian refugee has the Right to Return to his original home and country. This right is guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 13(2) which states: “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” This right is enshrined as well in the Fourth Geneva Convention, but more specifically in UN Resolution 194.

We totally reject all Israeli endeavours to manipulate the Palestinian Right to Return in any possible way. There were many Israeli attempts, throughout the past few years, to detach the Right to Return from the ‘just solution’ for the Palestinian case: Israel sought for an Arab and a Palestinian declaration of its ‘Jewish’ nature; it offered alternative solutions like compensation and immigration; and it even tackled the Right to Return in ‘exclusively Humanitarian’ individual cases falling within the scope of the PNA’s control.

We have succeeded in bringing the Right to Return to the agenda of the Arab Summit in al–Riyadh in March 2007 and from here we call upon the League of Arab States to protect and support the inalienable Right to Return, and to reject any agreement to negotiate this right or manipulate it in any possible way.

Although we re-affirm that Palestinian refugees have an absolute, inalienable and individual human Right to Return to their original homes and country, we believe that it can only be implemented by our continuous and firm struggle for liberation with the support of solidarity movements and groups all over the world.

Towards the 3rd Conference on The Right to Return

We are in the midst of our preparations for the 3rd conference on The Right to Return and Just Peace in Acre, 29th-30th June 2007. The conference aims at launching a new movement for the struggle to return and at establishing al-Awda coalition (The Return Coalition) in Palestine which is expected to bring together the different political movements, institutions and individuals interested in supporting the Palestinian case and our Right to Return.

We assert the role of the Association for the Defense of the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in Israel in its continuous organization of festivals and tours of return around Palestinian villages and towns.

We assure the role of organizations initiating the Right to Return and Just Peace conference and their efforts to turn it into an effective method displaying support and consolidation for the Right to Return.

We approach all interested organizations, movements and individuals to join our initiative to establish al Awda coalition which will gather the efforts of Palestinians and their supporters everywhere in an organized collective scheme.

We have decided this year to approach all interested organizations to give preliminary presentations on al Nakba for a wider participation and better contribution to develop the collective work towards the Right to Return and Just Peace Conference.

The Preparatory Committee for the Right to Return and Just Peace Conference

The Association for the Defense of the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in Israel

The Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies

Zochrot ‘Remembering’

Ittijah-The Union of Arab Community Based Associations in Israel