52 years have transpired since the Zionist usurpation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine - the conquest which resulted in the uprooting and dispersal of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and the destruction and depopulation of 530 Palestinian towns. Since then, the Palestinian people have withstood innumerable war crimes all in an effort to extinguish both the existence and idea of the Palestinian people and their sacred connection and right to return to their original homes. Despite these efforts, nothing has been able to shake the will and determination of the refugees to return. It is a right bequeathed from generation to generation. It is a right that we are daily reminded of from the walls of the refugee camps scattered throughout the Diaspora. It is a right for which many martyrs have died, and many more are prepared to. It is a right preserved in the rusting keys and documents that prove to the world that the land and homes are ours - that we shall never give up until that right is realized. Finally, but not least, it is a right that has been enshrined in the United Nations Resolution 194 since the inception of the refugees, and something that has been passed over 110 times in the General Assembly.

Do no bother asking whether we will accept compensation, whether we will go to Canada, Europe or China. Let Clinton, Barak and Arafat know - let the armies of negotiators and the legions of journalists know: We are going home - home to Palestine. Our olive trees and oranges await us. We will not accept anything less no matter who signs the next of the infinite agreements. The right of the refugees is a personal and collective right that cannot be cancelled - whatever the balance of power, whoever the signatories.

We, the refugees tell the Camp David clique, do not bother returning if you are bringing us anything less than the Right of Return. For we are a force that cannot be broken, that cannot be defeated, as though we would one day accept others to negotiate our fate. We will fight to defend our rights - those of our grandparents, and those of infinite generations of our children who will one day raise their own children in Haifa, Akka and Jaffa, in Zakariya, Beit Jibrin and Safed.

Beware of the wrath of the camps. Beware of the wrath of the unborn children of Palestine. We hold the past, the present and the future and we will know what to do to realize what is ours.

Organizations of the Camps of the South
12 July 2000

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