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The
Campaign for the Defense of Palestinian Refugee Rights is rooted in a
series of popular and independent refugee initiatives, which appeared on
the political map of 1948 Palestine/Israel and the Israeli-occupied
West Bank and Gaza Strip and after Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) signed the
1993
Declaration of Principles. These initiatives, designed to lobby and
pressure the PLO, the Palestinian Authority (PA), Israel and the
international community, developed in response to a deep sense of
alienation and marginalization from the political process. The political
process between Israel and the PLO did not allow for popular
participation nor did the agreements include explicit references to
refugee rights as set forth in UN General Assembly
Resolution 194,
Security Council
Resolution 237, and international law.
"Time has come for the refugees community to organize
itself in popular committees and to design a strategic program of
struggle based on the hidden capacities of the people - the refugees
themselves - who, with their unity, patience, and clear objectives, have
maintained the struggle for their national rights."
Declaration
Issued by the First Popular Refugee Conference, Deheishe
Refugee Camp, 1996
These initiatives
were as much an expression of concern about the exclusion of specific
rights and demands of refugees as they were about the popular demand for
better representation and democratization of the political process.
Refugees in the southern West Bank, for example, reminded the PLO, the
PA, Israel and the international community that,
The right of return and the refugee issue are at the core of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Therefore, any effort at the establishment
of a just peace in the region will fail, if it does not include a just
solution for the refugees based on internationally legitimized
resolutions, especially Resolution 194. We do not oppose peace. We are
for a peace built on mutual respect for international legitimized
rights, and hold that the implementation of the right of return and the
respect of the Palestinian national rights are the key to ending the
conflict in the whole region.
Basic
agenda and guidelines for a community-based campaign for the right of
return, as part of a comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, were defined in series of popular refugee conferences convened
in 1995 and 1996. Conferences were held in Nazareth (National Committee
for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced, March 1995);
in the former Israeli prison compound of al-Far’ah in Nablus (December
1995); and in Deheishe refugee camp in Bethlehem and in the Gaza Strip
(Union of Youth Activities Centres – Palestine Refugee Camps).
Recommendations issued by refugees in the Deheishe conference, for
example, stated:
We demand that the [Palestinian National
Authority] PNA and the PLO, the only legitimate representative of our
people, set initiatives to support the efforts for the establishment and
development of bodies of coordination between the camps and dispersed
refugees, so as to confront the schemes aimed at transforming us into
separate communities in different countries. We demand [that the PNA and
the PLO] support all activities aimed at mobilizing the refugees under
the slogan, 'The right of return is a sacred right and the red line
which must not be crossed.' It should be clear that the popular support
for parties – elected or not, official or not – and for any negotiating
team, will depend on their repsect for democracy, national and human
rights.
The popular refugee conferences and the prospect of final status
negotiations between Israel and the PLO in 1999-2000 led to the gradual
expansion of the loosely organized right of return network. Strategy
debates, lobbying and protest activities carried out in 1997-98
encouraged not only additional grassroots organizations, but also the
PLO operated Popular Service Committees, elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and activists in Palestinian unions,
political parties and institutions (Palestinian National Council, etc.)
to join the campaign.
The
Global Palestine
Right of Return Coalition was officially established in 2001 enabling
partners in the Middle East, Europe and North America to organize joint
initiatives and develop unified strategies for Palestinian refugee
rights as part of a comprehensive negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
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