Tayseer Nassrallah (Administrative Director of Balata Youth Activities Center) called upon the NGO Campaign to conduct a series of meetings and workshops inside refugee camps, to raise issues of living conditions and problems related to health and education.  Dealing with these daily problems, he argued, would strengthen refugee's determination to insist in their right to return.  

Dr. Musallam Abu Hilu (Jerusalem Open University and academic director of the NGO Campaign) called for a deep analysis of development policies so as to understand their conceptual framework and so as to answer the question of who actually benefits from specific development policies.  He warned that the effects of development programs on refugee attitudes have remained largely unstudied.  Thus it may well be that development problems have an adverse effect on the refugees' demand for return; such programs might lead to gradual and unconscious refugee integration and resettlement.  

Hussam Khader (PLC) pointed out that there was a harmonious tune being played by several parties, a melody about bypassing the refugee question and about canceling international resolutions related to it.  UNRWA has already come under attack due to this new concensus.  A PA ministerial declaration presented to the PLC - to take another example - made only very marginal and shy reference to the right of return.  Hussam Khader suggested to listen carefully to the speeches of Palestinian officials and to insist in strong and clear statements on the right of return.  He suggested to implement the recommendations of the recent meeting in Jericho, which had confirmed the need to elect refugee camp councils so as to conserve the special administrative and legal status of the camps.  

Dr. Khaled Al Hilu argued, based on his experience with development policies in the health services sector, that development programs must be translated into common national language for people to undertand what they really imply.  This because sometimes supporters of such programs are not even aware of what they are actually doing, blinded by the label of development.  Thus, for example, there are persons who work for building self-administration in the refugee camps - just in order to enable UNRWA to leave without a just solution to the refugee problem.  

UNRWA camp directors of Balata RC, al Amari RC, Qalandia RC, Jelazoun RC, Beir Ammar RC, and Jenin RC emphasized the need for the continuation of UNRWA services for health, environment protection, and education, as well as the need for better coordination between UNRWA and other services organizations established or elected in the camps.  All of the above agreed that the improvement of living conditions in the camps was a means to guarantee steadfastness and to conserve camp identity.  Improvement of living conditions does therefore not contradict the right of return.  

Jamal Shati closed the workshop by sumamarizing its recommendations:  

1. We re-assert our demand for the right of return as in UN Resolution 194, especially in paragraph 11.   

2. Any effort to change the political reality of the Palestinian refugee camps must be totally rejected.   

3. The international community is called upon to fulfill its responsiblility by supporting and funding UNRWA so the latter can continue its services inside and outside the camps.   

4. We criticize the PLO and the PNA for its attitude of acceptance and silence with regard to the transfer of UNRWA headquarters from Vienna to the Gaza Strip, a step which expresses UNRWA's shift from an international to the local arena.   

5. We reconfirm the rejection of cuts in UNRWA services and demand UNRWA to increase its services.   

6. We demand that UNRWA not engage in policies which divide the Palestinian refugees and deny the right of return, especially when it comes to UNRWA's Peace Implementation Programs.   

7. We affirm the strong rejection of transfer of UNRWA tasks to other parties.  

8. We call upon UNRWA to rent new lands in order to improve the living conditions of the growing refugee population in the camps.  These newly rented plots should carry the name of the original camp until a just solution, i.e. the right of return, is achieved.  UNRWA is to extend its services to the new residential areas.   

9. We demand that incidents of UNRWA offering land to PNA returnees - as occurred in Jericho - be not repeated.    

Workshop 3>

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