<html>
<body>
<h2><b>End the Ongoing Palestinian Nakba?</b></h2><font size=2>By
<a href="http://palestinethinktank.com/author/kawther-salam/">Kawther
Salam</a> • May 15th, 2010 <br>
</font><font size=3>
<a href="http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/05/15/end-the-ongoing-palestinian-nakba/" eudora="autourl">
http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/05/15/end-the-ongoing-palestinian-nakba/<br>
<br>
</a>Statement of 15 May 2010 by <a href="http://www.badil.org/">BADIL</a>
– Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights Bethlehem,
Palestine<br><br>
The Nakba is Not Just an Event to Remember. The Nakba is Ongoing, and the
Time has come for it to end.<br><br>
<b>What is needed on the 62nd Anniversary of the 1948 Nakba? </b>
<ul>
<li>Achieve national unity, Strengthen
<a href="http://bdsmovement.net/">BDS campaign</a>.
<li>Activate Popular Resistance in all of its Forms.
<li>Organize Efforts Internationally.
<li>End Public Relations Negotiations.
</ul><br>
At their core, the circumstances surrounding the Palestinian struggle
today do not differ from those circumstances that led to the 1948 Nakba
and the colonization of Palestine. Today, on the sixty-second anniversary
of the Nakba, the nature of the western-backed Zionist-Israeli colonial
enterprise appears all the clearer. The indigenous Palestinian people
have been denied their most fundamental and inalienable rights of
self-determination, including their rights to return to the land from
which they were displaced, and continue to suffer from Israel's grave
violations of basic human rights and freedoms. As Israel cruelly
blockades the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip and denies 7.1 million
displaced Palestinians around the globe their rights to return,
restitution and compensation, the international community provides a
protective shield forged through diplomatic, economic, cultural and
security cooperation which perpetuate Israel's impunity.<br><br>
In a time when Israel's true face as a regime of colonization, apartheid
and military occupation has been exposed for the world to see,
governments and their organizations, have chosen to look the other way.
The protective shield preventing effective redress and accountability for
Israel's crimes is no more provided by western states alone, as
international organizations have joined the chorus that calls for a
“balanced position” and have allowed Israel's membership and integration
into global and regional, civil and official organizations. Israel thus
enjoys not only the unlimited support of the United States, but also
enjoys preferential status with the European Union under the 1995
Barcelona Declaration and the E.U.-Israel Association Agreement, which
have entrenched European relations with Israel in political, military,
financial, economic, social and cultural terms, and even in the field of
humanitarian aid.<br><br>
Only recently, on 10 May, no OECD member state felt obliged by
international law or found the moral strength to block Israel's accession
to that club of the world's powerful economies. Israel's protective
shield is no longer composed merely of U.S. veto powers in the Security
Council of the United Nations. It has spread to other UN fora, such as
the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council where global powers
exert coercive pressure on member states, and even to domestic judicial
systems and international courts, in order to enable Israel to escape
accountability for its grave violations of international law.<br><br>
It has become painfully clear that Israel and the so-called Quartet view
Palestinian demands for the implementation of international law as an
obstacle to the peace process, at best, and as a form of unacceptable
radical extremism, at worst. This explains why the U.S. has resumed
pressure on the Palestinian and Arab representatives to return to the
negotiating table despite Israel's refusal to cease construction and
expansion of its settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, and
irrespective of the personal commitment given in this regard by President
Obama. Thus, so-called proximity talks and indirect negotiations are
being relaunched while Israel's prime minister reassures his coalition
government that there will be no limitation on settlement construction
and expansion, the forced displacement of Palestinians from Jerusalem and
the expansion of the network of apartheid roads and the Wall in the
occupied West Bank.<br><br>
Meanwhile, Israel continues to draft and adopt more racist legislation,
including law proposals to outlaw Nakba commemoration, the 2009 Israel
Lands Authority Law and a 2010 amendment of the Land Acquisition Law,
which allow privatization and confiscation of more land of Palestinian
refugees and citizens, as well as new military orders, such as Order No.
1650 arbitrarily defining a large portion of the Palestinian population
of the occupied West Bank and foreigners as “infiltrators” subject to
arrest and deportation.<br><br>
In light of the above and the division and weakness which has
characterized the performance of the Palestinian leadership, BADIL
re-iterates the call of the National Committee for the Commemoration of
the Nakba issued this 15 May:<br><br>
<b>For the Palestinian leadership to:</b>
<ul>
<li>Adopt a coherent strategy towards a just and permanent solution for
Palestinian refugees and IDPs, based on their right to return and in
accordance with international law, universal principles of justice and UN
resolutions 194 (1948) and 237 (1967);
<li>Halt all negotiations, whether direct or indirect, until Israel
completely halts settlement expansion, population transfer
(“Judaization”), and construction of the Wall and other infrastructure of
colonization and apartheid, such as roads and the light train connecting
Jewish settlements to West Jerusalem;
<li>Ensure national reconciliation and unity as a matter of urgency, and
rebuild the PLO as a legitimate and credible platform representing the
entire Palestinian people and its political organizations;
<li>Support and activate popular resistance in all forms permitted under
international law.
<li>Establish a consultative mechanism with professional civil society
organizations to support the efforts of the PLO in international fora.
</ul><br>
<b>To the public in Palestine and abroad to:<br><br>
Build and expand the civil society-led movement for boycott, divestment
and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international
law and exert stronger pressure on states to implement sanctions and
adopt decisions and resolutions which support the global BDS
Campaign;<br><br>
Redouble efforts for investigation of Israeli war crimes and crimes
against humanity and prosecution and punishment of those responsible, as
well as efforts to prevent Israel's accession and integration into
international and regional organizations.<br><br>
<br><br>
</b></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>