Article74 Magazine

Although the fact that two important conferences, a world conference on art and property seized by the Nazis and an international PA donor conference, were held in Washington, DC at the same time (30-11-98) is no more than a result of a strange coincidence, it does point to the historical relationship between the Nazi crimes in central Europe; the success of the Zionist movement in Palestine; and, the eviction and “disownership” of the indigenous Palestinian people.1 Using principles of international law as a basis for their claims, Jewish organizations and Israel have successfully raised unresolved claims of Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust against private institutions and states in the world.  On the other hand, equally legitimate claims of Palestinian refugees, victims - albeit indirectly - of the same Nazi crimes, have been silenced because they are considered politically inconvenient or "impractical".  Nevertheless, Palestinian claims for restitution have not been erased, because their legitmacy is also based on international law, including UN resolutions and conventions.  Palestinian claims, however, will remain marginalized and ineffective, unless they reach beyond the halls of various specialized UN subcommittees as well as the UN General Assembly where their approval and reaffirmation has become no more than a symbolic ritual.2  A broad campaign for the Palestinian right to restitution must be launched, so that World Jewish Congress Secretary-General Israel Singer can no longer state, "The return of that which was his, and which belonged to his and her community is a human right which every man deserves"3, without being taken by his word.