Palestinian right of return is non-negotiable: activist

Mother and child arrive in Jordan from the Gaza strip in 1968. (UNWRA)
Updated 15 May 2018
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Palestinian right of return is non-negotiable: activist

  • While the claim is inalienable, say Palestinian leaders, implementation is subject to negotiation — and various interpretations
  • The refugee problem is described by Israeli professor Ilan Pappe as 'ethnic cleansing'

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian refugee crisis began before May 15, 1948, when Israel declared itself a state on Palestinian land and began barring those who had left their homes from returning.

In many cases the new Jewish immigrants took over the homes and lands of the refugees who had temporarily left because of the violence perpetuated by underground Jewish militias.

The Zionist narrative was primarily focused on the false claims that Palestine is a “land without a people for a people without a land.” 

In the process of colonization and settlement by Jewish immigrants, Palestinians were dispossessed and made stateless.

The Palestinian refugee problem was taken up in Resolution 194, passed by the UN General Assembly in December 1948. It was also addressed in the Arab Peace Initiative introduced in 2002. 

Unlike various attempts by Israel and its apologists who insist the problem is insoluble, the Arab plan approaches the refugees’ case as something that can be accomplished by consensus rather than clashes.

The text on refugees in the Arab peace plan reads: “Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.”

Anis F. Kassim, a Palestinian lawyer based in Jordan and the editor of the Palestine Yearbook of International Law, told Arab News that the right of return enshrined in various UN resolutions is non-negotiable and does not have an expiry date.

The UN set up the Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, on Dec. 8, 1948, with a mandate to provide humanitarian, educational and health support to Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA now has nearly five million registered refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Attempts to cancel Palestinian demands to return to their homes have at times been reflected in attempts to disband this humanitarian UN agency.

US President Donald Trump suspended financial support to UNRWA in January 2018, warning that the US may withhold future aid payments to the agency over what he called the Palestinians’ unwillingness to talk peace with Israel.

In trying to deal with the thorny issue of the right of return, Palestinian negotiators over the past decades have shown flexibility. Palestinian leaders have said that while this right is inalienable, its implementation is subject to negotiation.

Palestinian negotiators have said they want Israel to recognize its “legal and historic responsibility” for the refugee crisis.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas went even further in 2012 when he said on Israeli TV that he no longer has any desire to live in the city in which he was born and raised, Safad, but would not mind visiting it. In February 2014 in Ramallah, he also told a group of 300 visiting Israelis that Palestinians are not interested in “flooding Israel with Palestinian refugees.”

Arab and Muslim countries have offered Israel a comprehensive peace plan that allows Israel a say in how the right of return is resolved.

This flexibility, however, is not universally accepted by Palestinians, and many have continued to oppose any compromise on the  issue. 

Suheil Khoury, a leading left-wing activist based in Amman, told Arab News that the Palestinian right of return is non-negotiable. 

“This is a personal and a collective right and no one has the right to concede this right except the refugees themselves.” Khoury said that PLO factions such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine reject efforts by Fatah and other mainstream PLO factions that he feels take this sacred right lightly. 

“The right of return is the main plank in the political programs of many Palestinian factions and many have paid the ultimate sacrifice upholding this right.”

The refugee problem is described by Israeli professor Ilan Pappe as “ethnic cleansing.” Unlike the expectations of many Israelis that new generations of Palestinians will forget about Palestine, the right of return continues to take center stage at Nakba Day activities and throughout the year. Generation after generation retain memories of Palestine.

Fakher Daas is a member of the politburo of The Popular Unity Party (Hizb al Wihdeh al Shaabi) in Jordan. He is also a member of the Return Committee, which organizes rallies and protests throughout Jordan.

“Right of return committees exist throughout Jordan and conduct regular events, protests and teach-ins to ensure that new generations of Arabs are aware of this right and its ramifications,” he told Arab News. Similar committees exist throughout the world.

The right of return has also been one of the main features of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BdS) movement. It calls for “respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”

The movement has published an article by Pappe and Karma Nabulsi fleshing out the issue.

“There is hardly a right that is more morally urgent and more legally compelling than the Palestinian right of return,” they wrote.

“Regardless of who they are, where they came from, or when they became homeless, refugees the world over have an inalienable right to return to their homes. They and their descendants retain that right until the moment of its translation into reality — when they are permitted to return, and can chose whether or not they wish to do so.”


Israel says South Africa ‘genocide’ case ‘totally divorced from facts’

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Israel says South Africa ‘genocide’ case ‘totally divorced from facts’

THE HAGUE: Israel lashed out Friday at South Africa’s case before the UN’s top court, describing it as “totally divorced” from reality, as Pretoria urges judges to order a ceasefire in Gaza.
“South Africa presents the court for the fourth time with a picture that is completely divorced from the facts and circumstances,” top lawyer Gilad Noam told the International Court of Justice.

Houthis say they downed US MQ-9 drone over Yemen’s Maareb

Updated 9 min 48 sec ago
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Houthis say they downed US MQ-9 drone over Yemen’s Maareb

DUBAI: Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they downed a US MQ9 drone on Thursday evening over the southeastern province of Maareb, the group’s military spokesman said on Friday.
The Houthis said they would release images and videos to support their claim and added that they had targeted the drone using a locally made surface to air missile.


2 killed in drug-smuggling attempt in Jordan

Updated 17 May 2024
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2 killed in drug-smuggling attempt in Jordan

  • Other suspected smugglers were injured during the security operation and fled back into Syria
  • Jordan’s King Abdullah called on regional states to be vigilant

AMMAN: Two people were killed on Friday as Jordan’s security forces cracked down on an attempt to smuggle “large quantities” of drugs into its territory from Syria, state news agency PETRA reported.

Other suspected smugglers were injured during the security operation and fled back into Syria, while several firearms were seized, according to the report.

Jordan has recently intensified its patrols because of an alarming rise in attempts to smuggle drugs and weapons into the country.

Jordan’s King Abdullah called on regional states to be vigilant at the Arab League Summit in Manama on Thursday.

“We should confront armed militant groups who commit crimes above the law, especially smuggling drugs and arms which is what Jordan has been thwarting for years now,” he said.


Aid trucks begin moving ashore via Gaza pier, US says

Updated 17 May 2024
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Aid trucks begin moving ashore via Gaza pier, US says

  • Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip have rolled across a newly built US floating pier to Rafah

WASHINGTON: Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip rolled across a newly built US floating pier into the besieged enclave for the first time Friday as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hinder food and other supplies reaching people there.

The US military’s Central Command acknowledged the aid movement in a statement Friday, saying the first aid crossed into Gaza at 9 a.m. It said no American troops went ashore in the operation.
“This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature, and will involve aid commodities donated by a number of countries and humanitarian organizations,” the command said.
The shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day entering the Gaza Strip as Israel presses in on the southern city of Rafah as its 7-month offensive against Gaza.
But the US and aid groups also warn that the pier project is not considered a substitute for land deliveries that could bring in all the food, water and fuel needed in Gaza. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered Gaza on an average day.
The operation’s success also remains tenuous due to the risk of militant attack, logistical hurdles and a growing shortage of fuel for the trucks to run due to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7. Israel’s offensive since then has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, local health officials say, while hundreds more have been killed in the West Bank.
Troops finished installing the floating pier on Thursday. Hours later, the Pentagon said that humanitarian aid would soon begin flowing and that no backups were expected in the distribution process, which is being coordinated by the United Nations.
The UN, however, said fuel deliveries brought through land routes have all but stopped and this will make it extremely difficult to bring the aid to Gaza’s people.
“We desperately need fuel,” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said. “It doesn’t matter how the aid comes, whether it’s by sea or whether by land, without fuel, aid won’t get to the people.”
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the issue of fuel deliveries comes up in all US conversations with the Israelis. She also said the plan is to begin slowly with the sea route and ramp up the truck deliveries over time as they work the kinks out of the system.
Aid agencies say they are running out of food in southern Gaza and fuel is dwindling, while the US Agency for International Development and the World Food Program say famine has taken hold in Gaza’s north.
Israel asserts it places no limits on the entry of humanitarian aid and blames the UN for delays in distributing goods entering Gaza. The UN says fighting, Israeli fire and chaotic security conditions have hindered delivery.
Under pressure from the US, Israel has in recent weeks opened a pair of crossings to deliver aid into hard-hit northern Gaza and said that a series of Hamas attacks on the main crossing, Kerem Shalom, have disrupted the flow of goods. There’s also been violent protests by Israelis disrupting aid shipments.
US President Joe Biden ordered the pier project, expected to cost $320 million. The boatloads of aid will be deposited at a port facility built by the Israelis just southwest of Gaza City and then distributed by aid groups.
US officials said the initial shipment totaled as much as 500 tons of aid. The US has closely coordinated with Israel on how to protect the ships and personnel working on the beach.
But there are still questions on how aid groups will safely operate in Gaza to distribute food, said Sonali Korde, assistant to the administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, which is helping with logistics.
“There is a very insecure operating environment” and aid groups are still struggling to get clearance for their planned movements in Gaza, Korde said.
The fear follows an Israeli strike last month that killed seven relief workers from World Central Kitchen whose trip had been coordinated with Israeli officials and the deaths of other aid personnel during the war.
Pentagon officials have made it clear that security conditions will be monitored closely and could prompt a shutdown of the maritime route, even just temporarily. Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, a deputy commander at the US military’s Central Command, told reporters Thursday that “we are confident in the ability of this security arrangement to protect those involved.”
Already, the site has been targeted by mortar fire during its construction, and Hamas has threatened to target any foreign forces who “occupy” the Gaza Strip.
Biden has made it clear that there will be no US forces on the ground in Gaza, so third-country contractors will drive the trucks onto the shore. Cooper said “the United Nations will receive the aid and coordinate its distribution into Gaza.”
The World Food Program will be the UN agency handling the aid, officials said.
Israeli forces are in charge of security on shore, but there are also two US Navy warships nearby that can protect US troops and others.
The aid for the sea route is collected and inspected in Cyprus, then loaded onto ships and taken about 200 miles (320 kilometers) to a large floating pier built by the US off the Gaza coast. There, the pallets are transferred onto the trucks that then drive onto the Army boats. Once the trucks drop off the aid on shore, they immediately turn around the return to the boats.


Yemen, Egypt presidents discuss Red Sea security

Updated 17 May 2024
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Yemen, Egypt presidents discuss Red Sea security

  • Houthis claim they are attacking ships to stop Israel’s war on Gaza

RIYADH: The presidents of Egypt and Yemen held talks on Thursday about ways to secure shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad Al-Alimi and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met on the sidelines of the Arab League Summit in Bahrain, according to Yemen’s state news agency Saba.

Al-Alimi and El-Sisi emphasized the importance of security in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden for the region’s stability.

Since November, the Houthis have launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones at international commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden. They have reportedly been acting in solidarity with the Palestinian people and want Israel to stop its war on Gaza.

During the meeting, El-Sisi emphasized Egypt’s commitment to Yemen’s unity and stability, and added that Cairo would continue seeking a political solution to the crisis in that country.

Al-Alimi thanked Egypt for its efforts to alleviate suffering in Yemen and for seeking to ensure stability in the region.