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href="http://www.addameer.org/news/phroc-nakba-statement-ongoing-nakba-must-end-time-has-come-international-community-act">http://www.addameer.org/news/phroc-nakba-statement-ongoing-nakba-must-end-time-has-come-international-community-act</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">PHROC Nakba Statement: The Ongoing
Nakba Must End: The Time has Come for the International
Community to Act</h1>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr"
style="text-align: left;">15 May 2018<br>
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<article id="node-news-3187"><span><span></span></span><span
id="da2a_1"> </span>
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<p>For the Palestinian people,
70 years of Nakba means seven
decades of subjugation by
Israel, characterized by
occupation, apartheid and
colonial policies and
practices. It also attests to
the chronic inaction and
failure of the international
community to fulfill its
obligations and
responsibilities under
international law, to a lack
of accountability and
protection, and to the
continued support of a shallow
and biased peace process
incapable of bringing about
peace or justice.
Nevertheless, after 70 years
of Nakba, the Palestinian
people remain resolute in
demanding their most
fundamental rights to return
and self-determination.</p>
<p>Today, at least 8.26 million
of 12.7 million Palestinians
are forcibly displaced
worldwide as a result of
Israel’s ongoing policies of
population transfer,
annexation, and colonization.<a
href="#_ftn1"
name="_ftnref1" title=""
id="_ftnref1"><sup><sup>[1]</sup></sup></a>
Israel has persisted in its
denial of reparations,
refusing forcibly displaced
Palestinians the right to
return, restitution,
compensation, and guarantees
of non-repetition as
articulated in numerous UN
resolutions.<a href="#_ftn2"
name="_ftnref2" title=""
id="_ftnref2">[2]</a> The
remaining one-third of
non-displaced Palestinians,
spread across Mandatory
Palestine, is subject to
ongoing policies of forcible
displacement by Israel.</p>
<p>In recent years there has
been a growing campaign led by
Israel and the United States
(U.S.) to terminate the UN
Relief and Works Agency for
Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA),
the international body
mandated to provide
humanitarian assistance to
Palestinian refugees. This is
not the first attempt by
Israel to delegitimize UNRWA,
nor is it the first time a
U.S. administration has
withheld or threatened to
withhold, funding to UNRWA as
a form of political blackmail.
The voluntary nature of
UNRWA’s funding, however, has
made the provision of its
services dependent on the will
of donors and, consequently,
has rendered it vulnerable to
political pressure and
interference. In fact, a
historical analysis of
Israel’s demands and U.S.
conduct from the outset of the
Oslo ‘peace process’ reveals
an organized and targeted
strategy designed to eradicate
the fundamental rights of
Palestinians in general, and
the rights of Palestinian
refugees and internally
displaced persons in
particular. This strategy is
intricately linked to the
demise of UNRWA, which serves
as a reminder of the
international community’s
failure to find a viable
solution for the world’s
largest and longest standing
displaced population. This
situation has resulted in a
severe financial crisis at
UNRWA that has significantly
affected the Agency’s capacity
to provide the most basic
services to Palestinian
refugees.</p>
<p>On 6 December 2017, U.S.
President Trump announced
Jerusalem as the capital of
Israel, becoming the first
state in the world to
recognize Israel’s unlawful
annexation of the city.
International consensus over
the past seven decades has
rejected claims by Israel to
sovereign rights over the city
of Jerusalem and condemned
Israeli measures that have
sought to alter the character
of the city as having no legal
validity, as reaffirmed by
numerous UN resolutions.<a
href="#_ftn3"
name="_ftnref3" title=""
id="_ftnref3">[3]</a> U.S.
President Trump broke with
this international consensus
by recognizing Jerusalem as
the capital of Israel and
ordering the relocation of the
U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem. Trump’s declaration
not only violates
international law, it also
deepens Israel’s unlawful
annexation of East Jerusalem
and illegal colonial and
settlement enterprise in and
around the city. Moreover, the
declaration signifies a change
in policy regarding final
status issues which directly
affect the conflict. The
U.S.’s recent policies
vis-à-vis Palestinian
refugees, UNRWA and Jerusalem
show a clear bias in favor of
Israel, rendering the U.S.
unfit to play a mediating role
in peace efforts.</p>
<p>With the chronic lack of just
and durable solutions,
Palestinians organized marches
demanding the right of return
in the 1990s. The March of
Return has been organized by
Palestinians in Israel
annually since 1998, each year
taking place in a different
village forcibly depopulated
during the Nakba. The march
has become the biggest event
of the year for Palestinian
citizens of Israel, with
growing participation across
the political and geographical
spectrum, as well as from
Palestinian youth. More
recently in the Gaza Strip,
the Great March of Return has
seen thousands of Palestinians
protesting for the realization
of their fundamental rights
and the end of the eleven
years closure of the Gaza
Strip.</p>
<p>Israel has responded to these
protests with excessive,
lethal force. Since the march
started on 30 March 2018,
Israeli forces have killed 40
Palestinians at the protests,
including five children, two
journalists, and two people
with disabilities.
Approximately 4,000 people
have also been injured, over
2,000 from live ammunition.
The willful killing and
injuring of unarmed protesters
represents a flagrant
violation of international
human rights law and
constitutes a grave breach of
the Fourth Geneva Convention.
It also constitutes a crime
under the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court.<a
href="#_ftn4"
name="_ftnref4" title=""
id="_ftnref4">[4]</a> These
practices attest to the
continued domination and
subjugation of the Palestinian
people. The marches and
Israel's excessive use of
force and unlawful killings
demonstrate the urgent need to
ensure protection for the
Palestinian people and to hold
Israel to account in
accordance with international
law.</p>
<p>The lack of durable solutions
for Palestinian refugees is
also of great significance in
the context of the destructive
conflicts within Arab
countries. These conflicts
have resulted in a secondary
mass displacement of
Palestinian refugees. During
the war in Syria, of the
560,000 Palestinian refugees
present in the country before
the commencement of the war,
400,000 have been displaced,
120,000 outside the country
and 280,000 internally, most
of them requiring immediate
humanitarian assistance.<a
href="#_ftn5"
name="_ftnref5" title=""
id="_ftnref5">[5]</a></p>
<p>The inalienable rights of the
Palestinian people,
principally to
self-determination and
reparations for forcible
displacement, cannot be
ensured by the humanitarian
and political approaches
currently deployed by the
international community, which
are based on an immense
imbalance of power and lack
any foundation in
international law. Any just
and durable solution to the
Palestinian Question must
begin with the adoption of a
rights-based approach. Failure
to do so will maintain a
status quo in which
international protection is
absent, and in which
Palestinians are condemned to
a fate of acute hardship and
further displacement. The
passivity of the international
community not only impacts
those who have already been
displaced but also encourages
further displacement as Israel
continues to enjoy impunity
for systematic and grievous
violations of international
law. </p>
<p>PHROC believes that a just
and durable solution is
impossible without the
adoption of a strategy based
upon justice, international
law, and relevant
international resolutions,
including UN General Assembly
Resolution 194 and UN Security
Council Resolution 237. It
reasserts that the
international community must:</p>
<p>· Take all measures to
ensure Israel’s compliance
with its obligations under
international humanitarian law
and international human rights
law;</p>
<p>· Genuinely strive to
secure international
protection – including durable
solutions – for Palestinian
refugees, primarily their
rights of return and to
self-determination;</p>
<p>· Ensure regular
funding for the UNRWA is
secured in order to ensure the
provision of humanitarian
assistance and protection to
all forcibly displaced
Palestinians.</p>
<div> <br clear="all">
<hr size="1">
<p><a href="#_ftnref1"
name="_ftn1" title=""
id="_ftn1">[1]</a>5.87
million registered
‘Palestine refugees’ and
1.66 million unregistered
refugees, in addition to at
least 720,000 internally
displaced persons on both
sides of the Green Line.</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref2"
name="_ftn2" title=""
id="_ftn2">[2]</a>UN
General Assembly resolution
194 (III), UN Doc
A/RES/194(III) (1948); UN
Security Council resolution
237, UN Doc S/Res/237(1967),
paragraph 1; UN General
Assembly resolution 3236, UN
Doc A/RES/3236 (1974); UN
General Assembly resolution
3376, UN Doc A/RES/3376
(1975).</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref3"
name="_ftn3" title=""
id="_ftn3">[3]</a>UN
Security Council resolution
242 (1967), UN Doc S/RES/242
(1967), paragraph 1(i); UN
Security Council resolution
478 (1980), UN Doc S/RES/478
(1980), paragraph 3; UN
Security Council resolution
2334 (2016), UN Doc
S/RES/2334 (2016),
paragraphs 1-3; UN General
Assembly resolution
ES-10/L.22 (2017), UN Doc
A/ES-10/L.22, paragraph 1.</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref4"
name="_ftn4" title=""
id="_ftn4">[4]</a>
“Statement of the Prosecutor
of the International
Criminal Court,
FatouBensouda, regarding the
worsening situation in
Gaza,” <em>International
Criminal Court</em>, 8
April 2018, available at: <a
href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=180408-otp-stat">https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=180408-otp-stat</a>
[accessed 8 May 2018].</p>
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<p><a href="#_ftnref5"
name="_ftn5" title=""
id="_ftn5">[5]</a> UNRWA,
“Syria Crisis,” available at:
<a
href="https://www.unrwa.org/syria-crisis">https://www.unrwa.org/syria-crisis</a>
[accessed 10 May 2018]. </p>
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