Documents
1. Statement by Palestinian Civil Society Calling upon Individuals and Organizations to Strengthen Global Boycott Campaign
In September 2001, one year after all international efforts at
halting Israel's violent military repression of the second
Palestinian
uprising in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip had failed, some
3,000 civil society organizations from around the world met at the
third World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa and
approved their NGO Declaration and Program of Action.
These NGO documents address racism and racial discrimination
related to the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
including military occupation and the denial of the right of return
of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons to their
homes and properties.
Already in Durban, representatives of 3000 civil society
organizations from around the world were united in their call for
global boycott and sanctions against Israel. Among others,
the NGO Program of
Action:
-Calls for the launch of an international anti
Israeli Apartheid movement as implemented against the South African
Apartheid through a global solidarity network of international
civil society, UN bodies and agencies, business and communities to
end the conspiracy of silence among states, particularly the
European Union and the United States (article 424).
- Calls upon the international community to impose a policy of
complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state as in
the case of South Africa which means the imposition of mandatory
and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes, the full cessation of
all links (diplomatic, economic, social, aid, military cooperation
and training) between all states and Israel. (article 425).
One year after Durban, Israel is engaged in the destruction of Palestinian civil society and its political leadership and the reestablishment of direct military occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. More than ever, Israel, protected by the United States and tolerated by the European Union, violates international law, human rights and UN resolutions.
Therefore, we as members of Palestinian civil society welcome
all recent initiatives to boycott Israel which have been launched
in
many parts of the world. For the sake of freedom and justice in
Palestine and the world, we call upon the solidarity movement,
NGOs, academic and cultural institutions, business companies,
political parties and unions, as well as concerned individuals to
strengthen and broaden the global Israel Boycott Campaign.
Israel Boycotts International Law and Human Rights - We Boycott Israel! With greetings of solidarity - Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ); Arab Center for Agricultural Development (ACAD); BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights; General Federation of Trade Unions in Palestine (GFTUP); High Coordination Committee of the Local Committees for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled - West Bank; LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment; Palestinian Center for Peace and Democracy (PCPD); Palestinian Federation of Women Action Committees (PFWAC), Nablus PNGO -Palestinian NGO Network; Palestinian Prisoners Society; Popular Committees of the Palestinian Refugees - West Bank and Gaza Strip; Residents of Destroyed Palestinian Cities and Villages in 1948 Palestine, Ramallah; Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC); Union of Health Care Committees; Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC); Union of Youth Activity Centers - Palestine Refugee Camps (UYAC)
2. STATEMENT issued by the DEPARTMENT OF REFUGEE AFFAIRS, Palestine Liberation Organization - PLO on 9-10-2002
In light of the controversy over statements by Dr. Sari Nusseibeh about his position on the final status issues, including the refugee issue, under the title of the Nuseibeh-Ayalon position, the Department of Refugee Affairs of the Palestine Liberation Organization would like to clarify to the public and the refugee community in the homeland and in exile the following:
First:
The political leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization
and the Palestinian National Authority is the party authorized to
design the solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and ensure
implementation of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian
people, including the establishment of the Palestinian state on the
1967 occupied territories with east Jerusalem as the capital of the
state, and affirming the rights of the Palestinian refugees as set
forth in UN resolutions, especially General Assembly Resolution
194.
Second:
Related to its position on the refugee issue, the Palestine
Liberation Organization has continuously affirmed its steadfast
commitment to the rights of the Palestinian refugees, and continues
to express its clear position internationally that includes: the
constant and principal commitment to the right of the refugees to
return to their homes as set forth in UN Resolution 194, and, the
right to compensation for the damages and losses caused by forced
migration.
Third:
The constant and principal
commitment to the right of the refugees to return to their homes is
a deep-rooted position and is nonnegotiable.
This right is the legal basis of other rights such as the right to
compensation. Any violation of the right of return would lead to a
loss and violation of all the refugees' rights.
Fourth:
Finding a durable and comprehensive solution for Palestinian
refugees is a basic and necessary condition for implementing a just
and comprehensive peace in the region; the just solution for the
refugees guaranteed under Security Council Resolution 242 must lead
to the implementation of General Assembly Resolution 194.
While the Department of the Refugee Affairs of the Palestine Liberation Organization follows with concern statements recently published by some brothers that do not express the official position of the PLO, especially in these days when the Palestinian people are facing hardships, the Department calls upon everyone to hold fast to the unified national position on the refugee issue, and abstain from all things that may create confusion in Palestinian public opinion and shift attention from the immediate challenges and issues. CVV shop
3. STATEMENT issued by the POPULAR REFUGEE COMMITTEES - GAZA REFUGEE CAMPS
Our Struggling People Greetings as you reach the end of the second year of the blessed Intifada, and start the third year with greater steadfastness, confirming to the Zionist enemy and its allies that the Palestinian people are stronger than the machinery of the Zionist military. Greetings as you hold fast to the right to return to the land of our great grandfathers; and, the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, sacrificing lives and resources to reach those goals.
All honor to the martyrs, injured, prisoners, handicapped and those who have been harmed by the brutal occupation. Our Great People In the wake of this legendary steadfastness in facing Zionism, and after achieving significant popular Islamic and Christian, Arab and Western sympathy; and with the deep conviction of the right of the Palestinian people to live on their land, the right of the refugees to return to their original homes, and the right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state; Some internally defeated people insist on transforming all these achievements into a defeat, ignoring all moral values and the entire Palestinian struggle.
Those defeated people, headed by Sari Nusseibeh, recently prepared a senseless poll to disseminate among the Palestinian people to canvas them about their internationally legitimized rights. The poll, which was prepared by Sari Nusseibeh after his meeting with 'Ami Ayalon - the previous head of the Israeli intelligence service (Shabak) - suggests that the return of refugees would be to the future Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The poll also included a demand to improve the living conditions of refugees in exile through contributions by Arab countries, Israel, United States and Europe, in addition to suggestions concerning Jerusalem and the Jewish state.
Our Heroic People We, the Popular Refugee Committees, declare the following:
1. What Sari Nusseibeh and others are doing is a stab in
the heart of the Palestinian leader Yasser 'Arafat, who holds fast
to the national consensus, foremost of which is the right of
refugees to return in accordance with UN Resolution 194.
2. We, the Palestinian refugees, reaffirm our steadfast commitment
to our right to return to our homeland from which we were expelled
from in 1948 by the Zionists and their allies.
3. Our right to return is internationally guaranteed by the
legitimacy of UN Resolution 194, and we are waiting the
implementation of this resolution however long it takes.
4. We, the Palestinian refugees, did not authorize and will never
authorize anyone to compromise our rights; it is our right to
resist the occupation until it is brought to an end according to
internationally legitimate resolutions.
5. We declare to everyone that we will resist all proposals that
aim to cancel the right of return as well as the proposals calling
for resettlement and an alternative homeland.
6. We call upon all refugees - individuals, committees,
organizations and political factions to announce their positions
that reject the actions of those who deviate from the national
consensus.
Our Heroic People All greetings as you continue your brave
Intifada; all greetings to the souls of the heroic martyrs, healing
for the injured, freedom for prisoners, shame and infamy for all
the defeated. WE WILL RETURN! Refugee Popular Committees
Gaza-Palestine