Documents
1. Future of the Palestinian Refugees under the Current Political Settlement:
The Rabat Declaration on the Rights of Palestinian Refugees
Issued by The Third International Conference of the Human Rights
Movement in the Arab World The Cairo Institute for Human Rights
Studies (CIHRS), in cooperation with the Moroccan Organisation for
Human Rights and the Euro- Mediterranean Human Rights Network
(EMHRN), with the participation of experts and representatives of
Arab and international human rights organisations, and with
generous facilitations from the Moroccan government, organised the
Conference on the Future of the Palestinian Refugees under the
Current Political Settlement/the Third International Conference of
the Human Rights Movement in the Arab World from the 10th to the
12th of February, 2001, in Rabat, Morocco.
The participants, Having reviewed the relevant international human
rights declarations, conventions and covenants and the Casablanca
Declaration issued by the First International Conference of the
Human Rights Movement in the Arab World, Having reviewed the papers
presented to the Conference, Having examined the tragic and inhuman
conditions of the Palestinian refugees and displaced persons in the
homeland and the Diaspora for more than fifty-two years,
Having considered Israel's intransigence and refusal to comply
with the resolutions of international legality on the refugees'
right to return and compensation, and the Israeli continuous
practices of banishment, displacement and human rights violation,
Having considered the attempt by some international parties to
circumvent the resolutions of international legality by suggesting
permanent settlement in the host countries and compensation as an
alternative to compelling Israel to comply with the will of the
international community, Decide to adopt the following
declaration.
The Conference affirms that:
First: Israel bears full responsibility for
creating the Palestinian refugees issue, through systematic
expulsion, whether direct or
indirect, massacres, killings, terror and intimidation. These acts
are corroborated by Israeli documents as well as testimonies by
some Israeli officials and historians. Israel bears the
responsibility in full also because of its persistent rejection of
the return of the
Palestinian refugees.
Second: According to the UN General Assembly Resolution 194, the Palestinian refugees' right of return to their homes and property is a personal right for every individual and a collective right for the refugees as a whole. No one is to be authorised to conclude any agreement that denies refugees, individually or collectively, their right of return. Furthermore, the establishment of the Palestinian state, or a refugee's acquiring of another nationality, does not deny refugees the right to return to their own towns and villages.
Third: Compensation for property usurped and for the grave psychological, economic and social suffering of Palestinians for more than fifty-two years is not an alternative to the enforcement of the right of return. Indeed, as the UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948 sets out, compensation should be paid in addition to return.
Fourth: Any political settlement that does not
ensure the rights of the Palestinian refugees will not lead to a
lasting, comprehensive
peace in the region. The Conference reaffirms that the
international community bears the main responsibility for enforcing
resolutions adopted by its institutions concerning the Palestinian
people's enjoyment of their right to self-determination, the return
of the Palestinian refugees to their homes, and providing them with
international protection until their return.
Fifth: Pending the implementation of the Palestinian refugees' right of return, they must enjoy their human rights to the full, namely their civil, social, economic and cultural rights, in the (temporary) Arab host countries. The Conference further reaffirms that safeguarding these rights is not the same as permanent settlement in host countries, which is rejected by Palestinians and Arabs in general. Nor does it mean relinquishing the right of return. Rather, it helps support the refugees' resistance to attempts to eliminate this right.
Sixth: Arab host countries are responsible for
enforcing the relevant Arab League resolutions, conventions and
recommendations.
The Conference calls for putting an end to the gross infringements
of the international and regional resolutions on the rights of
Palestinian refugees in a number of Arab host countries. It is
incumbent upon international and Arab human rights organisations to
dedicate more attention to such condition.
Seventh: The Conference urges international and
regional development agencies and donor states to provide the
necessary
financial support to:
1. The Arab host countries, in order to realize all of the economic
and social rights of the Palestinian refugees.
2. Civil society institutions in the Palestinian communities, so as
to be able to carry out their role in improving their
conditions.
3. The Palestinian National Authority, so as to enable it to
accommodate the Palestinians displaced in the wake of the
Israeli
occupation of the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza
Strip after the June 1967 war.
4. The UNRWA, in support of its role concerning the Palestinian
refugees.
Eighth: The Conference reaffirms the right of the Palestinians displaced within Israel to return to their original towns and villages, to reclaim their property, and to be compensated for their injuries. Institutions working towards the implementation of these rights should receive support.
Ninth: Israel's continued rejection of the
implementation of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948, which
was one of the
conditions for its accession to the UN according to General
Assembly Resolution 273 of May 11th, 1949, leads in effect to
annulling the decision to accept its membership. This makes it
obligatory that the United Nations expel Israel and impose
sanctions on it until it complies in full with UN resolutions.
Accordingly, the Conference calls upon the League of Arab States to
start forthwith taking the practical measures necessary for
implementing this recommendation.
Tenth: The forced displacement of millions of
Palestinians because of the acts of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by
Israel, which
included slaughters and acts of brutal terrorism, are crimes
against humanity to which statutory limitations do not apply. The
relevant civil society institutions as well as international and
Arab human rights organisations should perform their duty to work
for bringing perpetrators of such crimes to international justice,
including working for the establishment of an ad hoc criminal
tribunal.
Eleventh: The Conference reaffirms its profound
appreciation of the international organisations and networks that
took a principled
stand in supporting the Palestinian refugees' right of return, and
urges them to further their efforts in this regard. The Conference
also calls upon the international and Arab human rights
organisations to coordinate their efforts in this regard with the
networks organising the international campaign for the
implementation of the Palestinian refugees' rights to return and
compensation.
For more information contact: Cairo Institute for Human Rights
Studies(CIHRS), tel: +202 794-3715 / 795-1112, fax +202 795-4200, 9
Rustom St. Garden City- 7th floor, flat 35 Cairo- Egypt. Mailing
address: P.O.Box 117 Magles Al Shaab, 11516 Cairo -Egypt
2. Human Rights Watch Policy on the Right of
Return
Human Rights Watch has long defended the right of refugees and
exiles to return to their homes. We have upheld this right both
when international borders were settled - Guatemala, El Salvador,
Honduras, Malawi, Burma, Mauritania - and when they were in dispute
- Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, East Timor, Ethiopia/Eritrea. Human
Rights Watch similarly urges that this right be recognized for all
displaced people in the Middle East, regardless of religion or
nationality.
In the case of the Middle East peace agreement currently being
negotiated, the agreement should recognize this right for
Palestinian refugees and exiles from territory located in what is
now Israel or in what is likely to be a future state of Palestine.
Recognition should accord with the following principles:
The right is held not only by those who fled a territory initially
but also by their descendants, so long as they have maintained
appropriate links with the relevant territory. The right persists
even when sovereignty over the territory is contested or has
changed hands. If a former home no longer exists or is occupied by
an innocent third party, return should be permitted to the vicinity
of the former home.
As in the case of all displaced people, those unable to return
to a former home because it is occupied or has been destroyed,
or those who have lost property, are entitled to compensation.
However, compensation is not a substitute for the right to return
to the vicinity of a former home should that be one's choice.
All nations should assist in finding durable solutions to refugee problems. Ideally, this consists of giving each displaced person three options: local integration, third-country resettlement, and voluntary repatriation. In the Middle East context, countries where Palestinians now reside should offer them the option of full local integration. Palestinian families, many having lived in these countries for more than fifty years, have built lives there which they should be granted the option of continuing to lead.
Similarly, the international community should be generous in offering the possibility of third-country resettlement to those who might desire it, and in providing aid to assist the permanent settlement of those who choose to remain in the region as well as those who choose to exercise their right to return. Neither the options of local integration and third-country resettlement, nor their absence, should extinguish the right to return; their humanitarian purpose is to allow individual Palestinians to select during a specified period among several choices for ending their refugee status.
Like all rights, the right to return binds governments. No
government can violate this right. Only individuals may elect not
to
exercise it. The parties currently involved in negotiating a Middle
East peace agreement should focus on implementing the right to
return and facilitating the options of local integration and
third-country resettlement. They should not waive individuals'
right to return.
The international community has a duty to ensure that claims of
a right to return are resolved fairly, that individual holders of
the right are permitted freely and in an informed manner to choose
whether to exercise it, and that returns proceed in a gradual
and
orderly manner. Governments' legitimate security concerns should be
met consistently with these principles and other internationally
recognized human rights.
For more analysis on definitions and legal sources for this
policy statement on the Palestinian right of return see the Human
Rights Watch website, www.hrw.org. Mailing address, 350 Fifth
Avenue, 34th floor, New York, NY 10118-3299 USA, tel: 1-(212)
290-4700, fax: 1-(212) 736-1300
3. Amnesty International, Israel/Occupied
Territories/Palestinian Authority, "A Human Rights Agenda for
Peace" (excerpts on the right of return)
7. Everyone
has the right to return to his or her country. The right to return
is an individual human right which cannot be given away as a
political concession. Palestinians in exile should be given the
choice to exercise such a right and return to Israel, the West Bank
or Gaza Strip as appropriate. Palestinians should also be allowed
to choose other durable solutions, such as integration in their
host country or resettlement in a third country. Those who choose
not to return are entitled to compensation. Those returning should
also receive compensation for lost property. The same rights
relating to return and compensation should also be given to
Israelis who fled or were forced out of Arab and other
countries.
The Agenda was released by Amnesty International in March 2001.
To read the entire Human Rights Agenda see the Amnesty
International website, www.amnesty.org. Mailing addresses for
Amnesty International country offices are available on the
Amnesty
website.
4. Letter of Palestinian Community Organizations in
Palestine and Jordan to the Arab Summit, Amman, 27
March 2001 (Translation of Arabic original by BADIL)
Your Highness King Abdullah II
Chairman of the Arab Summit in Amman, Jordan
Your Excellencies, Kings, Presidents and Delegations of the Arab
States participating in the Amman Summit Greetings of respect,
The Tel Aviv government continues its hostile discriminatory policy
against our Palestinian people through its comprehensive
military and economic closure, the continued killing and
destruction carried out by its occupation forces as well as its
policy of extrajudicial execution/political assassination. These
policies have been committed in front of the whole world, which has
not taken action to provide the Palestinians with international
protection.
The United Nations, and the Security Council in particular, is
constrained by the support granted by the United States to
Israel.
Without mentioning the scale of the losses and damage caused by
these policies, the continuation of Israel's aggressive attacks
and
violence threatens even greater harm to the Palestinian people and
the nations of the region, destroying every hope of achieving the
desired peace and stability in this region. It has become even more
clear that Israel is not yet ready to pay the price required for
peace because of the discriminatory ideology that governs its major
policies, the support that it receives from the United States, and
the arrogance of power. Therefore, we call upon you to implement
your decisions in order that the Arab people might restore their
dignity among the nations. We also call upon you as leaders to work
on the following:
1. Unify the Arab position in the framework of a comprehensive
strategy to confront Israel's arrogance, including reconsideration
of
the role of United Nation bodies, especially the Security Council,
which should fulfill their responsibilities towards the
Palestinian
issue and secure implementation of international law, foremost
Resolution 194 (1948).
2. Pressure for international protection of the Palestinian
people by the United Nations through the Security Council. This
should
include the protection of Palestinian properties in historic
Palestine (occupied in 1948), Palestinian rights to the lands
included in the
Jewish state under Resolution 181, as well as Arab-Palestinian
rights in Jerusalem.
3. Reaffirm the Palestinian rights to return,
self-determination, and the establishment of an independent state
with Jerusalem as its
capital. Provide political and financial support to the Palestinian
position through projects that limit the impact of Israel's
arrogant
policies. Isolate Israel on the international level, including
through international sanctions, until Israel implements
international law and resolutions.
4. Ensure the implementation of the Arab and Islamic position
concerning Jerusalem and the right of each Arab state to protect
its
economic interests, markets, and culture against the Israeli
infiltration linked to its strategy of control, including military
attacks against Arab states.
5. Draw the attention of the international community and all peoples working for peace to the fact that any political settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict must be based on the re-instatement of Arab and Palestinian rights enshrined in international law and resolutions.
This requires a clear Israeli recognition of its readiness to
implement all United Nation resolutions pertaining to the
Palestinian case.
UN Resolutions 181 and 194 (Palestinian refugees' right of return
and compensation) are especially important in this context,
because the issue of Palestinian refugees inside Palestine and in
exile is indivisible and continues to constitute the core of
the
Palestinian issue and the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
You have always expressed unity and solidarity with the
Palestinian people. This support, provided through appropriate and
effective mechanisms, forms the basis of our people's steadfastness
against Israel's military machine and the arrogant occupation.
Union of the Youth Activity Centers - Refugee Camps in Palestine
Union of the Women Activity Centers - West Bank Refugee Camps
National Society for the Defense of the Internally Displaced
Popular Committees - West Bank Popular Committees - Gaza Strip
Committee for the Defense of the Palestinian Refugee Rights-West
Bank Yafa Cultural Center - Balata Camp, Nablus Follow-up Committee
for Refugee Affairs - Southern West Bank Camps BADIL Resource
Center, Bethlehem High Committee for the Defense of the Palestinian
Right of Return - Jordan
5. Land Day Statement, Society for the Defense of
the Rights of Internally Displaced Palestinians in
Israel
Long Live the Eternal Land Day! Yes to the
Return of the Displaced, No to a Compromise on the Right of Return
Palestinians in 1948 Palestine/Israel commemorate the 25th
anniversary of Land Day with a public strike, demonstrations and
rallies, as well as visits to the graves of the martyrs of the
first Land Day (1976) and the Al-Aqsa Intifada. They will plant
olive trees in the coastal area, the Galilee, the "Triangle" and
the Naqab in order to reaffirm the link between our people and our
land, and our right to the restitution of property stolen by Israel
even as Israel continues its arrogant policy of "Judaization" and
confiscation of our remaining lands. Unjust Israeli laws have been
adopted for the purpose of distributing properties stolen from us
before, during and after the Palestinian Nakba of 1948.
More than four million dunums of land belonging to displaced Palestinians are currently being transferred to the ownership of Jewish moshavim and kibbutzim established on our land after our displacement and the destruction of our homes in more than 531 Palestinian villages and towns. Palestinian homes and buildings that have remained in the towns of mixed Jewish-Palestinian population are considered "Absentee Properties" and offered for sale.
We affirm our commitment to our right of return, the return of
all refugees and displaced to their lands and homes. We declare
that
we will reject resettlement and compensation projects. We reaffirm
the illegality of unjust Israeli laws which contradict
international
law. We declare that all these laws legislated by the Zionist
Israeli establishment are illegal, because we are not absentees; we
are
here, present on our land.
On the occasion of Land Day, we reaffirm that the innocent blood
shed in the defense of our rights to live in dignity on our land
will
not be wasted, and that we will remain committed to the land and
our country.
We thus call upon our people to make the general strike successful
and to participate in the national protest activities announced
by
the High Monitoring Committee of the Palestinian community. We also
call upon our people and the local committees of internally
displaced Palestinians to conduct visits to the destroyed villages
on the morning of Land Day.
We call upon our people to participate in the Jaffa
Right-of-Return march to be held on 7 April, a day of international
solidarity with
the Palestinian refugees. We also call upon our people to
participate in the public march that will mark Israel's
"Independence Day" and our Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) on 26
April 2001. The march will lead from Nazareth (Jaffa neighborhood)
to the destroyed village of Ma'lul - and it will reaffirm our
commitment to our right of return.
Long live the Land Day! Eternal Respect for our Innocent
Martyrs
6. Land Day Statement, Palestinian Community
Organizatios and NGOs in Palestine and the Diaspora
The anniversary of Land Day takes place this year as the al-Aqsa
Intifada continues into its seventh month. The primary significance
of this occasion is the reaffirmation of the link between our
people and the national soil as well as resistance to all forms of
settlement, uprooting, and displacement. The al-Aqsa Intifada
reaffirms this meaning more than at any time before, through the
great sacrifices offered until now and through national
achievements represented in the unity of the people and the land
from the Galilee to the Triangle to the Naqab to the West Bank and
Gaza Strip reaching to the diaspora, both near and far.
The al-Aqsa Intifada has brought the Arab-Zionist conflict to a
head through which the American-Israeli alliance, opposed to our
people's right to return and right to self-determination, is
exposed. In this context the Intifada has unequivocally reaffirmed
the following:
• The Palestinian people are a factor that cannot be ignored in
finding a solution to the half-century conflict; Zionism has failed
to erase our national identity;
• The Palestinian issue has become, more than at any time before, a
factor that determines regional stability, and cannot be ignored by
the international community and dominant powers. Regional stability
is dependent on the realization of our basic national aims to
return, self-determination, and statehood with full sovereignty
with Jerusalem as the capital;
• The Right of Return, in accordance with the international law, is
the core of our national aims. The Right of Return has become a
core issue of the Intifada because it was considered negotiable and
subject for compromise due to Israel's adamant refusal to recognize
the Right of Return from the signing of the Oslo agreements,
through the period of negotiations until Camp David II. Our people,
by various popular, political and official bodies continue to
recognize the significance of Land Day as a national symbol of the
unity of the Land and the People.
Based on these affirmations, we emphasize the following:
• The right of displaced Palestinian and refugees to return to
their homes of origin is historic, sacred, and inalienable. This
right repudiates all plans for permanent displacement and
resettlement. It is strongly linked to the right to
self-determination, which is considered a customary rule in the
international law. It is impossible for a people, the majority of
them refugees, to practice this right without closing the gap
between demographic dispersal and demographic unity through the
implementation of the right of return both as an individual right
and as a collective right;
• The demand for international protection of the Palestinian people
falling under Israeli occupation, including temporary protection as
provided for under international law. This demand has became a
necessity in the wake of the election of the government of the war
criminal Ariel Sharon alongside similar criminals who, based on
racist attitudes, call for continued repression and the collective
transfer of Palestinians;
• The essence of Land Day is represented by the continuation of and
increasing the Intifada through all forms of struggle legitimized
by the international law to confront the occupation, settlement,
and racism.
Honor and Eternity to our Innocent Martyrs, We Will Return
A'idoun Group - Syria NGO Forum Working in Palestinian Refugee
Communities - Lebanon
A'idoun Group - Lebanon Palestinian Prisoners Society - West
Bank
Arab NGO Network for Development - Lebanon Popular Committees -
Gaza Strip Refugee Camps
Badil Resource Center - Palestine Popular Committees - West Bank
Refugee Camps
Committee for the Defense of the Palestinian Refugee Rights -
Palestine Right of Return Coalition - Europe
Committee for the Defense of the Internally Displaced (inside the
green line) Union of the Youth Activity Centers - Palestine
Follow-up Committee for Palestinian Refugee Affairs - South West
Bank Yafa Cultural Center - Balata Camp - Palestine
Higher Committee for the Defense of Right of Return - Jordan