Our great people,

Another year has passed since the Palestinian people's Nakba, when some one million Palestinians were displaced from their homes and their country Palestine, and we are looking back on 53 years of forced eviction and massacres planned and implemented systematically by the criminal Zionist forces. Overnight, our great people were turned into refugees, with no cover but the sky. Their 531 villages and towns were consequently completely destroyed and their lands were confiscated by numerous unfair laws which consider our people "absentees" on their land. Our people, however, continue to see Palestine with the hope of return and reject proposals of compensation and re-settlement.

We, the internally displaced, suffer tremendously, because we continue to live so close to our destroyed villages and towns. We look at the minarets of silent mosques and the bells of our churches that were forced into silence the day we were displaced. Our holy sites have been transformed into stables serving the cattle of the Jewish settlers, and into bars and sites of crime and drug abuse. For 53 years now, the desecrated graves of our grandparents have appealed to the human conscience.

Those who celebrate their independence day, are those who raped our land with force and massacres. They are those who uprooted two thirds of our people from their lands, demolished our homes, villages and towns, and confiscated our lands. They consider us absent; they continue to desecrate our respected holy sites and to commit more and more massacres and mass displacement. Sharon, the killer of Sabra and Shatila, who included in his government the propagator of "transfer", Rehavam Ze'evi and the fascist Avigdor Lieberman and other racist killers, aims to turn the Palestinian citizens of Israel into his next target.

They and their servants and collaborators are celebrating their independence day, the day of our Nakba. Determined and loyal to Palestine, we renew our oath and promise to return and to reject alternatives of compensation and resettlement. We call upon our people inside the "green line", the sons of our villages and towns and our political and social institutions to participate in the activities organized by the National Society for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced on 26 April 2001:

1. Thursday morning: Committees and local organizations organize visits to the destroyed villages, especially al-Barwa, Um Al-Zeinat and Suhmata.

2. Public rally "Al-Awda March" organized by the Society for the Rights of the Internally Displaced from the western Nazareth neighborhood of Jaffa to the destroyed village of Ma'alol located in the Haifa district. This activity is organized in coordination with the Ma'alol Heritage Association.

We call upon all our people to boycott all formal and informal celebrations of the Israeli independence day and to participate in the national activities that confirm our loyalty to our people and land.

Yes to the Return of All Displaced
Yes to the Right of Return
The Right of Return is Never Outdated
The Right of Return is Inalienable

The National Society for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced

17 April 2001

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