In a press conference held in Qalandia Refugee Camp on Thursday, 20-3-1997, the local Coordinating Committee of the Campaign for the Defense of Refugee Rights presented its aims and program to the media, thus marking the official start of their campaign. 
The Campaign for the Defense of Refugee Rights - to be launched in the West Bank - is a local expression of the awakening of Palestinian refugees in the region triggered by the concern for their future in the framework of the Oslo Process. Earlier this year, Palestinian refugees in both Lebanon and Syria conducted strikes and protest pickets against the cuts in UNRWA services and salaries, and the Department of Palestinian Affairs in the Jordanian Foreign Ministry warns of violent protests which may arise also among the 1.3 million refugees living in Jordan, unless the international policy of dismantling UNRWA is reversed. 

The local Campaign for the Defense of Refugee Rights is based on two years of efforts by the Union of Youth Centers in the West Bank, an independent grass-roots organization representing refugees of 16 West Bank refugee camps, aimed at better equipping Palestinian refugees for meeting the challenges of the current political process. This process has seriously questioned international standards and resolutions, especially Palestinian refugees’ right of return based on UN Resolution 194. The Union of Youth Centers was joined, in 1996, by the Jerusalem Open University/Refugee Studies Center, and by the Alternative Information Center/Project for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights who decided to support the refugee initiative with their expertise in academic research and media dissemination. 

In 1997, the three partner organizations will 

-conduct a series of workshops on dimensions and current interpretation of the Palestinian refugees’ right of return. These workshops will be held both among academic circles and in refugee camps, so as to clarify both the content and strategies of what remains Palestinian refugees’ central demand, dream and right; 

-facilitate popular refugee conferences in various regions of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in order to involve the broad refugee community in the debate about refugee recommendations and demands began by the refugee conferences in al Far’ah (1995) and the Bethlehem District (1996); 

-function as a refugee lobby among all official and independent political actors, especially the PLO, PNA and the PLC; 

-support refugee efforts for building pressure on the international community so it will abstain from further cut backs in UNRWA’s budget and services; 

-encourage local and international NGOs to increase their involvement on behalf of refugee rights in general, and the level of activities in refugee camps in particular; 

-establish coordination with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, so as to encounter the current division and isolation of Palestinian refugees in the region by means of concerted action. 

On 27 March 1997, the Coordinating Committee of the Campaign for the Defense of Palestinian Refugee Rights marked the start of its initiative with a public opening celebration at al-Serraj Center/Ramallah. An audience of approximately 200 persons, including numerous representatives from West Bank refugee camps, political personalities and members of the Legislative Council, arrived to this event despite the severe restrictions on movement imposed by the Israeli army. A folklore dance performance by the IBDA-Youth Troupe from Deheishe Refugee Camp expressed Palestinian refugees’ collective memory of the al Nakba (the catastrophe) of 1948 which shaped the collective identity of Palestinian refugees in Palestine and the diaspora.