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ACTION
ALERT
For Immediate Release
15 March 2005
Palestinians Condemn Asali Statements
March 15, 2005
A few weeks ago, the Forward newspaper
published an article on Dr. Asali, founder and head of the
"American Task Force on Palestine, ATFP" http://www.forward.com/articles/2746.
The article quoted Asali as publicly calling
on Palestinians to abandon the right of Palestinian refugees
to return to their original towns and villages in historic
Palestine because it is unrealizable." He then proceeded
to insult young Palestinian activists and their supporters
in the US. "I understand the young pro-Palestinian
students who scream on university campuses. I know what
they are talking about. And I also know that they don't
know what they are talking about."
Dr. Asali's statements prompted a large
number of Palestinian grassroots, community-based organizations
and associations created and run by refugees, in Palestine,
Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Europe and the US to issue a statement
of their own denouncing Asali's proclamations.
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Statement to the Public Regarding
Ziad Asali's Statements on the Right of Return for Palestinian
Refugees
The Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition
(and its constituent organizations in historic Palestine,
Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Europe and North America, including
Al-Awda), and in conjunction with the Right of Return Congress
and the listed signatory popular organizations and committees
representing various Palestinian refugee communities, join
the Arab-American community in declaring that various statements
and false representations by the president of the Washington-based
"American Task Force on Palestine" (ATFP) Dr.
Ziad Asali nullifying the Palestinian right to return and
demeaning the Palestinian and Arab people are reprehensible
and entirely outside the consensus of our people.
The Right of Return is an inalienable
right affirmed by the international community annually since
1948. No single person, group or government have the authority
or mandate to forfeit this individual and national right.
In reality, voices such as Asali's are
part of a larger concerted effort to introduce a false veneer
of moderation as a replacement for the legitimate inalienable
rights of the Palestinian and Arab people, represented by
their right to return, sovereignty and self-determination.
Through organizations like ATFP, Asali has gone even beyond
the Geneva Accords, the Nusseibeh-Ayalon Agreement and other
such attempts that violate fundamental, inalienable and
natural rights that are enshrined in international law.
From under the garb of hollow US democratization, Asali
has in effect been diligently advancing the neo-Conservative
plan for the "New Middle East", where nations
and people are reconstituted against their will.
Of particular concern is the concerted
attempt by Asali and a few others to normalize efforts leading
to self-defeat and the nullification of the right to return.
Asali made a statement to Forward recently that "we
(Palestinians) must now separate the right from the return,
" and that "there is really nothing to return
to. It is Israel now". Instantly Asali became a celebrity
in Zionist circles. Asali is free to forfeit his right to
return to his home in Jerusalem, but he has no right to
dismiss, hurt or forfeit the rights of 6 million Palestinian
refugees.
Asali's position is consistent with the
Bush administration's political construct and is based on
the erroneous notion that Palestinian refugees will merely
accept dictates from others after decades of struggle. In
reality, the Palestinians people, particularly the refugee
and exiled communities worldwide, are the sole makers of
their destiny through their own grassroots participatory
institutions and cumulative political consensus produced
by decades in struggle. These institutions have collectively
made it clear that the individual and collective right to
return is a fundamental prerequisite for any peace, as guaranteed
by international law, and will not be compromised nor offered
away.
As a reflection of the Bush administration's
policies against a targeted community, Asali, not unlike
Fouad Ajami, by design or default, seems to have taken on
the task of trying to fracture consensus and, through mockery,
instill in the community a subservient value of self. Yet,
as history continues to demonstrate, such a voice will always
remain an intruder threatening the well-being and cohesiveness
of their people and communities throughout the world. Asali
does not represent the aspirations of our people or the
wide base of the Arab American community despite his attempts
to claim the contrary. He remains outside the overwhelming
consensus and the stipulations of international law.
All such detractors of the natural and
legitimate Right of Return have failed miserably in their
attempts to dismantle human rights. The Palestinian people
have repeatedly demonstrated for nearly 57 years that they
are determined to exercise their Right of Return. In this
they are supported by all people of good and free conscience.
No doubt justice will prevail.
Signatories,
(The following signatories represent the
overwhelming majority of the Palestinian right of return
movement worldwide and a great sector of the Palestinian
people.)
- Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, North
America
- The Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition, including:
Right of Return Committee-Denmark
Right of Return Committee-Sweden
Right of Return Committee-Netherlands
Arab Culture Society--Poland
Palestinian Community - France
Right of Return Committee - Germany
Al-Awda, United Kingdom
- The Palestinian Right of Return Congress (Palestine,
Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, Europe, North
America)
- BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and
Refugee Rights--Palestine
- European Confederation for the Right of Return (Germany,
France, Denmark, Holland, Poland, Sweden, Norway, United
Kingdom and Italy)
- Aidoun Group-Syria
- Aidoun Group-Lebanon
- The Higher Committee for the Defense of the Right of
Return--Jordan
- Fateh Youth Movement-Province of Bethlehem--Palestine
- Families of Deportees of the Church of the Nativity-Palestine
- The Vocational Training Association-Dheisheh Refugee
Camp, Palestine
- Dheisheh Philanthropic Association-Dheisheh Refugee
Camp, Palestine
- Popular Committee-Al-Izza Refugee Camp, Beit Jibreen,
Palestine
- Union of Women Activity Centers-West Bank refugee camps,
Palestine
- Union of Youth Social Centers-Palestine
- Committee for the Defense of the Right of Return-Balata
Refugee Camp, Palestine
- Yafa Cultural Center-Balata Refugee Camp, Palestine
- Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally
Displaced-Shafa Amer, Palestine
- Popular Committee-Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Palestine
- Popular Service Committees (PLO) -West Bank refugee
camps, Palestine
- Popular Coalition for the Defense of the Right of Return-Palestine
- Beit Awla Cultural Center-Hebron, Palestine
- Beit Awla Municipality-Hebron, Palestine, Palestine
- Fateh Movement-Beit Awla, Hebron, Palestine
- Beit Awla's Women Club-Hebron, Palestine
- Beit Jibreen Association-Adhna, Hebron, Palestine
- Association of Residents of Villages and towns Destroyed
and Occupied in 1948-Ramallah Province, Palestine
- Coordinating Committee for West Bank Vocational Training
Associations in the West Bank-Palestine
- Gaza Popular Committees, Executive Office-Gaza Strip,
Palestine
- Committee for the Defense of the Right of Return-Ramallah
Province, Palestine
- Popular Committee for the Defense of the Right of Return-Nablus,
Palestine
- Yazour Philanthropic Association-Nablus, Palestine
- Kafar Saba Philanthropic Association-Nablus, Palestine
- Palestinian Return Center-Nablus, Palestine
- Hawaa' Cultural Center-Nablus, Palestine
- Popular Services Committee of Dheisheh Refugee Camp
-Bethlehem, Palestine
- Popular Services Committee of 'Aida Refugee Camp-Bethlehem,
Palestine
- Laji' Center/Return is the Key-'Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem,
Palestine
- The Coordination Forum of NGOs Working Among the Palestinian
Community-Lebanon
- Arab Resource Center for Popular Arts/Al-Jana--Lebanon
- Association Najdeh--Lebanon
- Health Care Society--Lebanon
- KG Resource & Training Center --Lebanon
- Palestine Martyrs Works Society/Samed--Lebanon
- Association for the Development of Palestinian Camps
(Ina'ash)--Lebanon
- Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation--Lebanon
- Handicapped Social Association--Lebanon
- National Association for Social Medical Care & Vocational
Training--Lebanon
- National Association for Vocational Training and Social
Services--Lebanon
- National Foundation for Health, Social and Educational
Services--Lebanon
- National Institution for Social Care & Vocational
Training--Lebanon
- Palestinian Arab Women League--Lebanon
- Popular Aid for Relief and Development--Lebanon
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