The Palestinian Right Of Return - Sacrosanct Or Sacrificed?
The new year of 2008 will bear heavily upon the Palestinian people. For this coming year will mark 60 years of occupation, dispossession, dislocation and death. This coming year will mark the 60th anniversary of Nakba – ‘the catastrophe’ – a time when, according to Israeli historian Benny Morris,
“…the Haganah (pre-state Zionist militia that was to become the Israeli Defence Force) were given operational orders that stated explicitly that they were to uproot the Palestinian villagers, expel them and destroy the villages themselves."
This was done to facilitate the creation of the state of Israel, illegally declared on May 14 1948. There have been various Zionist attempts to challenge this narrative by claiming that the Palestinian villagers left of their own volition or even that there was no Palestinian population to begin with. Like most revisionism, however, the Zionist brand flounders when faced with fact.
It stands condemned not only by Palestinians, the broad solidarity network and the UN, but also by the words of the first prime minister of the Zionist state, David Ben-Gurion.
When pressed on what fate should befall the 70,000 Palestinian inhabitants of Lydda and Ramleh, Ben-Gurion made a dismissive, energetic gesture with his hand and said, “Garish otam” (Expel them).
Through the systematic massacres and expulsions that followed, some 750,000 Palestinians were condemned to the status of refugees.
Generations of Palestinian refugees have battled long and hard, determined that their plight would not be relegated to a footnote in history. The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 194, which resolved that Palestinian refugees be afforded the ‘right of return’, yet crucially this is not what drives the Palestinian refugees to consistently demand their the freedom to return home.
The Palestinian refugees recognise that their right to return to their homes, is an inalienable human right, which like all human rights, is invaluable and cannot be bought, bargained, or sold. Palestinian refugees have endured harsh lives, existing in the direst of circumstances, scattered throughout the carved up Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Gaza and neighbouring Arab nations.
Generally, Palestinian refugees have refused to leave the camps to which they were exiled, determined that their very presence there would serve as a constant reminder of the injustice that befell them and of their absolute determination to return some day from whence they came.
However, following the recent Annapolis Conference, which was convened by Israel’s principal ally and benefactor, the USA, there are mounting concerns that a weak and unrepresentative element within the Palestinian Authority, would be prepared to view the ‘right of return’ as less sacrosanct and more sacrificial.
It must be made clear, that anything less than the end of Israeli occupation and the granting of a full ‘right of return’ for all Palestinian refugees, from within historic Palestine and its diasporas, will be totally unacceptable to the Palestinian people, two-thirds of which are refugees, over 4 million in total.
Indeed, there have been massive protests throughout Palestine, in Gaza, Hebron, Nablus, and Ramallah, which make this very point much stronger than any UN resolution. However, it is imperative that all progressive people become the voice of those, particularly within the Palestinian diaspora who have no input into the process, and demand that Palestinian people are afforded their right to return to their villages, 90 per cent of which remain vacant to this very day.
2008 should be a year when we redouble our efforts, demanding an end to the occupation of Palestine and the exile of its people. The time for acting upon the refugees is past - the time for acting with them is now. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign will be running numerous events throughout 2008 and have appealed for the widest participation possible.
Éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson urged Irish citizens to support the Palestinian people in any way they can.
“We in Ireland know all too well the realities of a forced, settler based, colonial occupation and what is witnessed in Palestine daily is akin to the worst atrocities and barbarity of the British Empire in Ireland at any stage of our history. Yet they are the forgotten people, and Palestine an issue not to be addressed by the majority of world politicians lest they incur the wrath of the USA or the powerful global Zionist lobby.
“For these reasons the Irish people should have an affinity with the displaced and occupied people of Palestine and should show solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Palestine and throughout the Arab World by supporting groups such as the IPSC and showing support for the ignored Palestinian people at every opportunity.”