Press Releases

For Immediate Release

On 2 November, Palestine began a series of anniversaries: the event that brought the Palestine issue to the forefront of world concern/disruption, the Balfour Declaration, 2 November 1917; the UN Partition resolution; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR); and, the UN resolution establishing the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine and calling for the return of Palestinian refugees.

The period ends 11 December with demonstrations and calls for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel resulting from the recent meeting of the European Coordinating Committee of NGO’s Working on Palestine (ECCP) and the European Social Forum. A main element of the campaign will be to demand the suspension of the European Association Agreement with Israel. The date was chosen to mark the signing of the UDHR and also put Palestine on the international agenda.

Day of Solidarity, Partition of Palestine

The Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is 29 November, the day Resolution 181 was adopted by the United Nations. The Resolution, 57 years ago, called for the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state in opposition to the desires of its majority, the Palestinian-Arab residents.  In 1977, the UN declared 29 November the UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination.

Human Rights Day

December 10 is the annual commemoration of International Human Rights Day and the 56th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among the basic rights in the declaration is the right “to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country” and the “right to own property” and not be “arbitrarily deprived of his property”.

Palestinian Right of Return, establishment of the UNCCP

Eleven December is the 56th anniversary of Resolution 194 (III) affirming the right of Palestinian refugees and displaced persons to return and repossess their homes and property and receive compensation for damages and losses.  The Resolution created no new rights or laws, it simply reflected existing international law and practice.

Resolution 194 also established the Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP), the primary international body mandated to provide protection to Palestinian refugees and search for lasting solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict.  It identified the private property owned by Palestinian Arabs in Palestine before the establishment of Israel in 1948 resulting in 453,000 records totaling 1.5 million individual holdings. 

But the UNCCP has not been provided with the machinery or resources to carry out its mandate since 1952. Since then, there has been no international body providing protection for Palestinian refugees or searching for durable solutions to their plight and an end to the conflict.

Palestinian refugees still left out

Efforts by the international community to include the Palestinian people in the community of nations continue to exclude the Palestinian refugees, a majority of Palestinians, from the universal rights accorded to persons around the world.

For more than 55 years, the international community has supported refugees around the world who simply want to go home, recognizing that a durable peace is not possible against the unfulfilled desire and right of refugees to return home. Palestinian refugees deserve the same.