Refugee Activists Discuss Mechanisms of Popular Refugee Conferences 

On 16 October 1997, the Campaign for the Defense of Palestinian Refugee Rights held the fifth and final session of a series of workshops conducted in 1997 under the headline "The Right of Return". This final session took place in Qalandia refugee camp/West Bank and aimed at raising for discussion the necessity of holding popular refugees conferences. 

Among the participants were representatives of the Union of Youth Activities Centers in the West Bank (UYAC), the PLC Refugee Subcommittee, members of the Service Committees established by the PLO Refugee Department, and Khaled al-Azza, member of the Follow-up Committee of the 1995 al-Far’ah refugee conference. The session was directed by Wajeh Attalah, field director of the Campaign for the Defense of Refugee Rights. Atallah called to deepen refugees’ awareness of the dangers which surround them and to encourage the formulation of a strategy which serves their main aim, i.e. the protection of the right of return. 

Mahmoud Radwan (UYAC) pointed at the lack of a refugee leadership which could guide refugees’ efforts to protect their rights. He raised that the absence of such leadership was severely felt during the recent refugee protests against cuts of UNRWA services. Based on the successful experience of the al-Far’ah Conference, he stressed that the UYAC, continues to play a central role in initiating and coordinating popular refugee activities. 
Khaled al-Azza (al-Far’ah Follow-up Committee) proposed that it was time to prepare for the elections of popular committees in the refugee camps (a step which was decided in Jericho in April 1997 as an alternative to refugee participation in the PA municipal elections). These committees must work, first of all, to mobilize for the right of return. The refugee issue must not be changed from a political issue to an issue of services, despite the importance of daily services and the importance of the struggle for the protection of the right to services for the refugee population. He indicated that previous refugee conferences, starting from al-Far’ah, to the Deheishe and Gaza conferences, have had a central role in mobilizing public concern and launching activities toward a general, national refugee conference in the 1967 occupied lands. 
Awni Mashni (PLO Service Committees) thanked the Campaign for the Defense of Refugee Rights for its role in activating the refugee issue on the ground and via the media. He agreed with those who had spoken before him that now is the time to examine and determine suitable mechanisms for proceeding on this matter. The idea of organizing refugee conferences, he explained, derived from the concern about unfavorable political solutions, and fear among refugees that future political agreements may cancel their rights. However, according to Mashni, the organization of specialized conferences, such as a Jerusalem conference, settlement conference, and a refugee conference, involves considerable danger. This danger derives from a probability that such conferences will lead to the partition of the Palestinian cause, as well as to the partition of the Palestinian political effort, potentially causing severe damage. Moreover, he questioned the legitimacy of any refugee conference or of those elected by such a conference to represent Palestinian refugees. He also wondered how membership in the conference would be determined. However, he agreed that all refugee activists should cooperate in identifying a suitable mechanism for a refugee conference which will be based on a correct model and conducted in an appropriate context. 

Jamal Shati, head of the PLC- Refugee Subcommittee, emphasized that the PLO remains the only legitimate representative and the political reference for the PNA. It continues to symbolize the homeland of the Palestinian people. The current peace project is a transitional project in the struggle for a broader, Palestinian national project, which includes the right of return, the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and self determination. In response to Mashni, Jamal Shati argued that the existence of the Jerusalem Committee, committees opposing land confiscation, and prisoners’ committees have not caused damage to the Palestinian cause as a whole, and that a refugee conference would not cause any damage in the future. Moreover, he argued that the proposal for refugee conferences was not a proposal for sectarian action, but a call upon all sectors of the Palestinian people to act for the defense of the rights of Palestinian refugees who represent the majority of the Palestinian people. Just as in the past, Palestinian refugees had acted on all issues concerning the Palestinian people. Now it is time for all sectors of the Palestinian people to defend refugees’ rights. Shati expressed his conviction that the Palestinian political negotiators on the refugee question will remain weak, unless their position is backed and stabilized by popular mobilization for the right of return, lead by the active nuclet inside the refugee camps. 

Finally, the participants agreed that the discussion and recommendations of this session should be regarded as the beginning of concrete preparations. In continuation of the effort towards popular refugee conferences, refugee activists will hold additional discussions to determine suitable mechanisms for organizing such conferences.