Wednesday, 20. September 2006, 05:34:00
Palestinian refugees are the largest and longest suffering refugee population. Of the almost 10 million Palestinians in the world today, more than 7 million of them are "living" in refugee camps --
refugee camps.
Signs of the Times
September 14, 2006
The Right To Return, a Basic Right Still Denied
In 1948 the Zionist state of Israel was created. Yes, it was
created. But it wasn't a magical or supernatural creation -- it wasn't created from nothing. No, it was created using other people's land -- the land of the Palestinians, upon which their ancestors resided for more than a thousand years -- a land called Palestine.
During the creation of this Zionist state in 1948, approximately three quarters of a million Palestinians were forced to become refugees. They were literally driven from their land -- a land they called home. Many of those who refused to leave were killed. They were killed by a particularly evil people. They were killed by the Jews who promoted Zionism.
This is what happened in 1948, a year that lives in infamy --
a tragic saga for the Palestinian people, a despicable legacy for the Zionist Jews.
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Approximately 32,000 Palestinians became internally displaced in 1948. Today, these refugees number approximately 355,000 persons. Despite the fact that they were issued Israeli citizenship, the
Zionist state continues to deny these refugees their right to return to their homes or villages.
When the West Bank and Gaza Strip were occupied in 1967, about 200,000 Palestinians fled their homes. These 1967 refugees and their descendants today number more than 800,000 persons.
As a result of home demolitions, revocation of residency rights and construction of illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian owned-land, more than 50,000 Palestinians have become displaced in the occupied West Bank. This includes 15,000 persons who have become displaced by the construction of Israel's Annexation/Apartheid Wall.
The Right to Return has a solid legal basis-- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms:
"Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and return to his country."
-- The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination states:
"State parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination on all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, color, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of ... the right to leave any country, including one's own, and to return to one's country."
-- The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights states:
"No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country."
Moreover, the Principle of Self Determination guarantees, inter alia, the right of ownership and domicile in one's own country. The UN adopted this principle in 1947. In 1969 and thereafter,
it was explicitly applied to the Palestinian people, including "the legality of peoples' struggle for
self-determination and liberation".
International law demands that neither occupation nor sovereignty diminish the rights of ownership. When the Ottomans surrendered in 1920, Palestinian ownership of the land was maintained. The land and property of the refugees remains their own and they are entitled to return to it.
In 1948, some people felt a sense of responsibility
for the mass dispossession, ethnic cleansing and the Zionist transfer policy that began in Palestine. UN mediator count Folke Bernadotte, stated:
It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes, while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine.
The count's indictment against the Zionist state is as valid today as it was in 1948. Today, any Jew, regardless of national origin, can gain automatic citizenship in this state created from stolen land. Palestinians, on the other hand, forced to flee their homes at the point of a gun, continue to be denied their right to return to their own homeland.
By the way, on September 17, 1948 shortly after 5:00 pm, good count Bernadotte was assassinated by Zionist terrorists on a Jerusalem street. Zionist terrorism is as prevalent today as it was in 1948, perhaps more so.
The UN General Assembly adopted
Resolution 194 on December 11, 1948. Paragraph 11 states:
refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible.
Resolution 194 has been affirmed by the UN over 130 times since its introduction in 1948 with
universal consensus except for -- Israel\United States. This resolution was further clarified by Resolution 3236 which reaffirms "the inalienable right of Palestinians to return to their homes
and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return".
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The inalienable rights of refugees are not negotiable. International law considers agreements between an occupier and the occupied to be null and void if they deprive civilians of recognized human rights including the rights to repatriation and restitution.
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