|
Public
Statement
of
the
National
Committee
to
Commemorate
the
Nakba
at
60–Palestine
There
is
no
Alternative
to
the
Return
to
Our
Homes
and
Properties
To
the
People
of
Palestine,
Whether
you
live
within
the
'Green
Line',
in
Jerusalem,
the
West
Bank,
Gaza,
or
in
exile;
you
shall
return,
there
is
no
doubt
that
you
shall
return.
Today
the
skies
will
echo
as
you
state
with
one
united
voice:
“There
can
be
no
alternative
to
our
return”,
all
sounds
will
melt
away
as
your
voice
rises
to
say
“There
can
be
no
peace
without
our
return
to
our
original
lands
and
homes.”
You
who
shall
return,
raise
your
voices
and
say
“This
is
our
land,
this
sky
is
our
sky,
this
rock,
tree,
moon,
and
sea
are
our
country,
it
will
always
be
our
Palestine.
You
who
shall
return,
60
years
ago
on
this
day
was
our
Nakba,
and
today
after
sixty
years
we
confirm,
that
we
have
never
let
the
banner
of
return
fall
to
the
ground,
and
that
the
hour
of
return
to
our
original
homes
and
lands
has
come.
Today
we
do
not
commemorate
so
we
can
weep
over
what
was
lost,
we
come
together
to
march
forward;
to
march
home.
You
who
shall
undoubtedly
return,
It
has
been
said
that
this
was
a
land
without
a
people
for
a
people
without
a
land;
but
what
was
the
reality?
Our
people
have
inscribed
their
presence
on
the
history
of
this
land,
deeply
engraving
their
national
identity
as
people
struggling
for
liberty,
dignity
and
freedom
on
every
stone.
Now
these
stones
fly
in
the
face
of
the
oppressor's
lies
that
deny
our
existence
and
our
rights.
It
has
been
said
that
by
dispersing
us
to
the
far
corners
of
the
earth,
we
will
disappear
or
melt
away;
but
what
was
the
reality?
A
people
with
roots
reaching
far
into
the
depths
of
Haifa,
Akka,
of
Al-Majdal
and
Um
Rasrash;
an
people
whose
history,
civilization
and
culture
has
sprouted
on
every
inch
of
this
earth
with
the
roots
extending
back
to
the
land
of
Palestine.
It
has
been
said
that
with
the
passage
of
time,
our
elderly
will
die
and
our
youth
will
forget;
but
what
was
the
reality?
From
the
memory
of
our
people
have
emerged
generations
that
paint
the
history
of
Palestine,
its
villages,
houses,
its
sage
and
its
oranges;
a
painting
to
which
all
compasses
point,
for
despite
the
distances
and
directions
that
separate
us;
Palestine
will
always
be
the
compass.
It
has
been
said
that
we
were
deceived
by a
mendacious
offer
of
peace,
and
rushed
on
our
knees
to
reap
its
rewards;
but
what
was
the
reality?
A
popular
uprising,
an
intifada
that
stood
up
in
the
name
of
truth
to
those
who
trusted
their
own
treachery.
It
was
said
that
by
caging
us
with
their
wall,
and
co-opting
the
world
to
besiege
us,
the
strength
of
our
hope
would
die
away,
and
our
voice
with
it;
but
what
was
the
reality?
They
were
suffocated
by
our
chants,
to
the
point
where
their
leader
said
“Every
time
I
hear
of
the
right
of
return,
I
tremble
afraid
of
what
the
future
holds,
I
begin
do
doubt
the
reality
of
Israel's
establishment...”
Yes,
you
who
shall
undoubtedly
return,
your
chants
are
the
ones
that
force
doubt
into
the
minds
of
those
celebrating
their
so-called
independence.
For
their
crimes
of
the
Nakba,
still
chase
them,
haunting
them
even
after
sixty
years.
What
is
the
difference
between
the
Ben-Gurion
who
had
no
fear
for
his
newborn
state
except
that
the
refugees
may
return,
and
the
Olmert
who
trembles
when
he
hears
a
reference
to
our
right
to
return?
It
is
the
ghost
of
the
victim,
the
pride
of
the
first
generation
of
refugees,
both
the
living
and
the
deceased,
and
the
insistence
of
today's
generation
that
they
will
indeed
return.
To
our
people
across
the
globe,
Can
we
even
count
the
number
of
political
projects
that
aimed
and
attempted
to
strip
us
of
our
rights?
Their
names,
sources
and
dates
change,
but
all
have
experienced
the
same
fate
in
history's
dustbin;
a
fate
that
shames
the
conspirators,
and
that
proudly
decorates
you
who
refused
to
surrender.
The
main
target
of
all
of
these
projects
was
your
right
to
return,
whether
through
complete
denial
of
the
right,
through
attempts
to
resettle
you
elsewhere,
or
by
finding
those
who
would
offer
congratulations
to
the
Jewishness
of
their
state,
or
by
attempting
to
recast
your
struggle
as
one
seeking
humanitarian
charity,
or
by
attempting
to
alter
the
meaning
of
your
right
as
one
to
return
to
the
West
Bank
or
Gaza,
or
more
recently,
by
equating
your
rights
to
those
of
the
Jewish
faith
who
came
from
Arab
lands
to
settle
on
yours.
Can
a
right
be
lost
so
long
as
its
bearers
continue
to
demand
it?
One
thousand
times
we
say:
NO!!
It
is
the
wise
saying
of
our
ancestors
that
no
right
can
be
lost
so
long
as
the
right-bearers
fight
for
it.
Your
right
exists
so
long
as
you
and
your
land
exist.
Yes,
our
right
to
return
to
our
homeland
is
enshrined
in
international
law,
not
least
in
UN
General
Assembly
Resolution
194.
However,
this
resolution
brought
nothing
new
to
the
law,
it
simply
restated
the
most
basic
principles
of
law
and
morality:
that
any
human
being
has
a
right
to
go
home,
and
that
any
person
forced
to
leave,
has
the
right
to
reclaim
all
that
was
taken
from
her;
and
that
the
only
way
to
extinguish
these
rights
is
for
the
refugee
herself
to
choose
not
to
return.
Those
that
expelled
us
can
reject
and
conspire
and
deny,
but
we
continue
to
remain
steadfast
and
resist
and
resist
and
resist,
and
we
will
continue
to
resist
until
we
return.
For
there
is
no
right
that
is
not
granted
without
the
sacrifices
of
struggle,
and
there
is
no
oppressor
that
can
continue
to
commit
grave
injustice
for
ever.
Our
right
is
enshrined
first
by
our
existence,
and
second
by
this
universe's
moral
code,
and
third
by
law.
As
such
there
is
nothing
to
fear
from
a
wandering
beggar
knocking
at
the
doors
of
the
world's
governments,
and
there
is
nothing
to
fear
from
a
Zionist
leader
consumed
by
the
doubt
of
his
and
his
state's
legitimacy,
and
there
is
nothing
to
fear
from
violent
stick
of
the
Unites
States'
empire
nor
from
its
carrot,
for
this
right
cannot
be
defeated
by
war,
nor
stolen
by a
conspiracy.
Today,
on
the
60th
anniversary
of
our
Nakba,
we
do
not
come
together
to
respond
to
the
inane
stupidities
of
this
or
that
jester,
nor
to
the
projects
that
aim
to
resettle
us
or
provide
us
with
their
charity;
today
on
the
60th
anniversary
we
come
together
to
announce
a
new
beginning
to
our
struggle,
to
announce
that
the
march
to
the
actual
return
and
to
real
freedom
has
begun,
and
will
not
end
until
all
of
our
rights,
including
our
return,
the
restitution
of
our
property,
and
the
compensation
for
all
that
we
have
endured,
have
been
implemented.
Today
we
reaffirm
our
rights,
not
least
those
articulated
in
UN
General
Assembly
Resolution
194;
we
reaffirm
our
reclamation
of
our
national
unity
and
an
end
to
internal
division
through
open
discussion,
and
we
reaffirm
our
commitment
to
the
project
of
reviving
the
Palestine
Liberation
Organization,
the
sole
legitimate
representative
of
the
Palestinian
people
and
the
uniting
framework
of
the
our
people
and
our
struggle.
As
such,
it
is
imperative
that
we
prioritize
the
following
steps
in
relaunching
our
march
along
the
road
of
return:
-
To reflect the reality that the Nakba did not end in 1948, but has continued every day since then as Israel works to expand its control of our land and expel our people from it. As such we call for the adoption of the phrase “Ongoing Nakba”;
-
That we refer to the Palestinians who managed to stay within the part of Palestine occupied in 1948 as the “Palestinians within the Green Line” or the “Palestinians in 1948 occupied Palestine” when referring to them, instead of phrases that deny them their Palestinian identity. Also to refer to “Historic Palestine” when referring to the Palestine's borders during the British mandate, as well as stressing that the right of return is to the refugees' “original homes and properties”;
-
Consolidating and bolstering the culture of return through our society's formal, popular and civil institutions, and ensuring that this is disseminated consistently and as widely as possible through all means;
-
Considering a person or organization's stance on the right of return as the litmus test that determines our relationship with Israeli institutions and entities, and a measure for differentiating between projects as ones aimed at normalization or not;
-
Strengthening the popular campaigns in Palestine, the Arab world and internationally, particularly the campaign for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, as well as the campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott, and the campaign against the Israeli Apartheid Wall;
-
Organizing an international campaign to push the United Nations to readopt its resolution recognizing Zionism as a form of racism;
-
To stress in our work, language, and daily life the important distinction between Zionism and Judaism, and that Israel is a product of international Zionism that is nothing other than a colonial apartheid state;
-
To be very clear that any political arrangement, including the 'two-state solution', that does not include the full implementation of the rights of the refugees, is in no way a solution, and no more than an insulting and deceptive way of conflict-management.
-
To ensure that the Palestinian narrative is properly documented, and included in all Palestinian educational curricula;
-
Closely working with international movements that are in solidarity with our struggle to strengthen its place on the international agenda; and mobilizing Palestinian solidarity with the causes and struggles of oppressed people around the world, particularly the struggles of indigenous peoples for sovereignty and liberty.
You
who
shall
undoubtedly
return,
After
sixty
years
of
expulsion,
exile
and
refuge;
after
sixty
years
of
international
impotence,
and
the
failure
of
international
organizations
to
enforce
their
own
decisions;
and
after
sixty
years
of
Israeli
arrogance,
we
declare
that
the
commemoration
of
the
Nakba
as
of
today
will
nothing
but
a
date
to
renew
our
commitment
to
struggle
until
we
achieve
our
return
to
our
original
homes
and
lands.
We
declare
the
return
to
be
the
program
of
our
struggle,
and
not
just
a
demand,
and
will
continue
as
such
until
the
end
of
the
Nakba,
“whether
they
like
it
or
not”
as
Yasser
Arafat
once
said.
We
Shall
Return
Palestine
15
May
2008 |
