No one has the right to give up Palestinian refugees’ right of return

(CHICAGO NOV. 2, 2012) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made an historic concession to Israel on Thursday when he told Israel channel 2 TV he had no permanent claim on the town of Safad, from which he was driven as a child along with his family during the Nakba of 1948. 

AMP asserts that all refugees everywhere have the right to return to their home countries. This is an individual and collective right enshrined in international law, and as such it cannot be bartered away by anyone. The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) rejects the idea that one person can speak for the millions of refugees inside the West Bank, Gaza, and the rest of the world.

With his pandering comments, Mr. Abbas effectively shut down the right of return, which is enshrined in Article 13 of the Fourth Geneva Convention generally, and guaranteed for Palestinians by United Nations Resolution 194. The right of return is an inalienable individual and collective right and no one person or political authority has the right to give that right away.  

Roughly two-thirds of the Palestinian population – 750,000 individuals – was ethnically cleansed from their towns and villages and forced into exile in 1948. The refugee population now numbers more than 7 million people. Palestinian refugees are the world’s largest and longest lasting refugee group.  

“It is unconscionable that the president of the Palestinian Authority would so flippantly disregard all Palestinians living in refugee camps and in the Diaspora,” said Dr. Hatem Bazian, AMP chairman. “We believe that Mr. Abbas is not representing the millions of refugees who yearn to one day step foot in their beloved homeland again.” 

AMP calls for renewed pressure on Israel by the international community, as well as by Congress to end its occupation of Palestine, to stop settlement construction and to allow Palestinian refugees to return home.