De Israelische Terreur 280

'ADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights 29 November 2007
Press Release
60 Years After the UN Partition Plan
Launch of the "Nakba-60 Campaign" -
a Global Campaign for the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

"We had a country, but they they came and stole our country", members of the
old generation of Palestinian refugees from towns and villages in what is now
Israel summarize what happened between 1947 - 1949, and they call it
the "Nakba" (catastrophe). "Look, they are stealing our country", say
Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank today. They point at Israel's
Wall, roads, military checkpoints and Jewish colonies which deprive them of
access to some 40 percent of the land and cause more displacement. "This is
our Nakba; the Nakba is ongoing", they say.
Today, 60 years after the UN Partition Plan, Palestinians and people of
conscience worldwide launch a year-long campaign of public awareness-raising
and education about the Nakba and Israel's discriminatory Apartheid-like
regime over the Palestinian people in the 1967 OPT, Israel and in exile.
60 years ago, on 27 November 1947, the United Nations recommended partition of
Palestine (UNGAR 181) against the wishes and rights under international law
of the indigenous Palestinians who composed two thirds of the country's
population. The international community envisioned that there should be two
states: a "Jewish state" on 55 percent of the land - in the most fertile
parts of the country and with access to the sea - for a population composed
of an equal number of Arabs and Jews; and, an "Arab state" on the rest of the
land, which - arid and land-locked - was to survive with the help of
international aid.(1)
Today, the international community rallies around the new "Annapolis process"
and continues to pursue partition. Again, there is no political will to
respect, protect and promote the rights of the Palestinian people under
international law, and international aid is to ensure that the Palestinian
Authority and hope for a Palestinian state will survive.
Meanwhile, Israel claims legitimacy based on the historic UN Partition Plan,
although the existing "Jewish state" and its proposals for conflict
resolution based on "two nation states" or "two states for two peoples" do
not respect the right of "non-Jews" (i.e. Palestinians) to equality as
required under the provisions of the 1947 UN plan, subsequent UN resolutions
and international law. Not held accountable to international law, and in
deviation from Israel's common stand that "we must never forget or forgive",
Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs Tsipi Livni went even further, when she
said to her "Palestinian colleagues" in Annapolis: "Do not bemoan the
establishment of the State of Israel ... for us the establishment of the
Palestinian state is not our Nakba, or disaster – provided that upon its
establishment the word "Nakba" be deleted from the Arabic lexicon in
referring to Israel."
Palestinians, however, insist in their rights to commemorate suffering and
injustice and seek remedy for victims, in particular for Palestinian
refugees. The ongoing Nakba is at the core of the agenda. The
one-year-long "Nakba-60 Campaign" launched today is carried by Palestinian
community networks, the global Palestine Right-of-Return Coalition and the
global movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel
until it respects international law and universal human rights. It is
supported and coordinated globally by a wide range of civil society
organizations and networks, including the World Social Forum and the
International Coordinating Committee of NGOs on Palestine (ICNP). The ICNP
Call to Action for Nakba-60 is published today; it calls for concerted global
civil society efforts to promote the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, in particular the right to self-determination and return (UNGAR 3236
of 1974).
For copies of the ICNP Call to Action and information and events related to
the Nakba-60 Campaign see: http://www.blogger.com/www.badil.org/campaign40-60/index.html
(1) UNSCOP Report, 3 September 1947, A/364.
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BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights PO Box 728, Bethlehem, Palestine
Telefax: 00972-2-2747346
info@badil.org - http://www.blogger.com/www.badil.org
WE COMMEMORATE 60 YEARS OF THE PALESTINIAN NAKBA 1948
See: http://www.badil.org/campaign40-60/index.html