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<h1 id="reader-title">Right of return is the heart of
Palestine's struggle</h1>
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<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/mohamed-mohamed"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label
skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mohamed Mohamed</a></span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime"
content="2016-09-06T15:45:00+00:00">6 September 2016</span></span><br>
<br>
</p>
<p>A friend of mine recently shared an image meant to show
solidarity with Palestine. At first glance, I thought it
was nice: it depicts a heart that is outlined with the
word “Palestine,” is filled with the names of many
Palestinian cities and is decorated with the colors of
the Palestinian flag.</p>
<p>Naturally, I tried to find the city of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/safad">Safad</a>,
which is near the birthplace of my grandparents. I
couldn’t find it, but I also couldn’t find other nearby
cities such as <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/akka">Akka</a>,
<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/haifa">Haifa</a>
or even <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/nazareth">Nazareth</a>.
Then it became clear: none of the Palestinian cities
seized by Zionist forces during the 1948 <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/nakba">Nakba</a>
were included in this Palestine heart.</p>
<p>As a descendant of Palestinians from a village in what
is now known as Israel, the barrage of Israeli
propaganda attempting to bury the history of our
existence is not surprising. One can expect no less from
a state that was created through the expulsion and
subjugation of an existing population.</p>
<p>Discrimination against Palestinians is not perpetrated
solely by the Israeli state; it is endemic to Israeli
society itself. A <a
href="http://www.pewforum.org/2016/03/08/israels-religiously-divided-society/">recent
Pew survey</a> indicates that almost half of Israeli
Jews believe that Palestinian <em>citizens</em> of
Israel should be expelled from the country and 79
percent believe that Jews deserve preferential treatment
in Israel.</p>
<p>Yet the heart image, which ignores a key injustice
perpetrated against Palestinians, presumably originated
from a supporter of Palestine. It is just another
picture among millions being shared online, but it
serves as a reminder of how the plight of Palestinians
dispossessed in 1948 has in many ways been forgotten,
even by those who are supportive of the Palestinian
cause.</p>
<h2>A non-negotiable right</h2>
<p>The <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/right-return">right
of return</a>, a cornerstone of the Palestinian
struggle, is the principle that Palestinian refugees
have an inalienable right to return to their homeland.
This includes those who fled or were forced to flee in
1948 as well as in 1967, along with their descendants.</p>
<p>The right of return is also enshrined in international
law. The UN General Assembly in December 1948 adopted <a
href="https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/C758572B78D1CD0085256BCF0077E51A">Resolution
194</a>, which called for the return of Palestinian
refugees to their homes. In June 1967, the UN Security
Council passed <a
href="https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/E02B4F9D23B2EFF3852560C3005CB95A">Resolution
237</a> calling on Israel to facilitate the return of
refugees, thereby including those forced out by Israel’s
seizure of land days earlier.</p>
<p>Israel continues to violate its obligations under
international law. It has no intention of correcting or
addressing the historic injustices that created the
Palestinian refugee problem, and the right of return has
been one of the main issues preventing a just settlement
of the conflict. In the rare instances that Israel even
considers Palestinian statehood, it regards the right of
return as <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Netanyahu-on-Palestinian-right-of-return-There-is-no-room-for-maneuver-338329">out
of the question</a>.</p>
<p>Although the original refugees of the 1948 ethnic
cleansing are declining in number, their descendants
number more than <a
href="http://www.unrwa.org/palestine-refugees">five
million</a>. Even if a fraction exercised their right
to return, this could potentially upset the balance of
power within the Israeli political system in a dramatic
way. Considering that Israelis have long been warned of
the “<a
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/what-it-feels-be-demographic-threat-israel/">demographic
threat</a>” to the “Jewish state,” and that the entire
Zionist project relies on maintaining Jewish demographic
domination, it is no surprise that they are unwilling to
accept the right of return.</p>
<p>As a result of its entrenched political, economic and
military power, Israel has no incentive to accept
responsibility for its crimes or make any reparations.
On the contrary, the Israeli propaganda machine actively
tries to <a
href="http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/palestine-oppressed-normalization/">normalize</a>
the country’s dark history and its ongoing oppression of
Palestinians.</p>
<p>In other words, the expectation is that repeated human
rights violations, including ethnic cleansing and
dispossession, become accepted as normal if given enough
time. This normalization influences the perceptions of
international audiences, the Israeli public and even
Palestine supporters who have become disheartened by the
poor prospects for a fair resolution.</p>
<h2>Game of patience</h2>
<p>The first conference of the Zionist movement took place
more than 50 years before 1948; the colonization of
Palestine has long been a maneuver of patience, backed
by overwhelming violence and international complicity.</p>
<p>This is still the case today, 68 years after the Nakba.
Israel is likely betting that after the first-generation
refugees die off, the following generations will
gradually forget their claims to historic Palestine.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/jnf-plants-trees-uproot-bedouin/9072">trees
planted by the Jewish National Fund</a> will continue
to grow and conceal the evidence of Palestinian villages
destroyed by Zionists.</p>
<p>It is imperative that supporters of Palestinian rights
never forget the refugees of 1948. Palestine solidarity
movements continue to call for the right of return, but
for strategic reasons much of their activism focuses on
issues such as settlement activity in the West Bank,
including East Jerusalem, and Israeli aggression against
Gaza.</p>
<p>The Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions
(BDS) movement calls for the <a
href="https://bdsmovement.net/faqs">boycott</a> of
“all of the Israeli companies and institutions that are
involved in its violations of international law,” but it
<a
href="https://bdsmovement.net/get-involved/what-to-boycott">acknowledges</a>
that the most prominent campaigns target companies that
operate in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Campaigns against settlement activity in the so-called
Occupied Palestinian Territories are simply more likely
to gain broad international support than those calling
for the right of return.</p>
<p>This reality of what powerful nations — and even some
activists — will support is a testament to the
persistence and effectiveness of Israeli propaganda.
Despite uprooting hundreds of thousands of people in
1948, occupying their lands and subjugating those who
remained, major world powers view Israel as a legitimate
state, a “bastion of democracy.”</p>
<p>To them, Palestinian lands captured in 1948 are not
perceived as occupied in any way. The “Occupied
Palestinian Territories” refer to the West Bank,
including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, and
Israel’s official position is that they are “<a
href="http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Peace/Guide/Pages/FAQ_Peace_process_with_Palestinians_Dec_2009.aspx#Settlements1">disputed</a>,”
not occupied. History is written by the victors here.</p>
<p>Furthermore, supporters of Israel are notorious for
answering valid criticism of state policy with
accusations of anti-Semitism. They equate the
Palestinian right of return with the denial of Jewish
self-determination and this discourages others from
speaking out.</p>
<h2>Remaining steadfast</h2>
<p>The core issue here is that the Zionist founders of
Israel expelled the native Palestinian population and
seized their lands. Israel’s very foundation rests on
occupation and oppression.</p>
<p>In Lebanon, stateless Palestinians continue to live in
overcrowded and underserved refugee camps with few
rights, while Israelis — effectively squatters — live
comfortably on the lands of these Palestinians’ parents
and grandparents, only tens of miles away. Their
rightful homes and lands are undoubtedly occupied.</p>
<p>No peace agreement can ever void this right of return
because individual rights cannot be abrogated by any
peace deal. Israel arrogantly claims sovereignty over
the Palestinian lands that it stole in 1948, and it
would like nothing more than to receive official
sanction of this claim. Any Israeli willingness to
recognize Palestinian statehood would be contingent on
that.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Israel will continue to methodically <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-starvation-diet-gaza/11810">malnourish</a>,
stunt and limit the caloric intake of Palestinians in
Gaza and <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/topic/freedom_of_movement">suppress
Palestinians in the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem,</a> in the hope that protracted suffering
and humiliation will lead them into submission.</p>
<p>The Palestinian people have remained steadfast in the
face of such Israeli tyranny. Sixty-eight years of
displacement and repression have not broken their will
and resilience.</p>
<p>But as Israel’s propaganda continues to distract from
the truth of its foundation, and when even the supposed
chief representative of Palestinians <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/2012113141235546948.html">indicates
his willingness to cede</a> his claims to his
hometown, it becomes more important than ever for
Palestinians and their supporters to reaffirm the right
of return. Otherwise, the true extent of the occupation
of all historic Palestine will be forgotten.</p>
<p><em>Mohamed Mohamed is the Finance, Grants and
Development Associate at The Jerusalem Fund and
Palestine Center in Washington, DC.</em></p>
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