28 june 2017
At least three people, including an eight-year-old girl, were pronounced dead at daybreak Wednesday following bloody clashes in Sabra camp for Palestinian refugees, in Lebanon.
According to the Lebanese National News Agency, deadly clashes burst out between Bilal Akr militias and Abu Mohamed Badran band, claiming the lives of Bilal Akr, Samir Badran, and a girl called Haylana. The casualties were transferred to al-Makasid Hospital. Bilal Akr’s brother sustained serious wounds.
Lebanese army troops cordoned off the vicinity of the camp in an attempt to restore calm in the area.
Several arrest warrants were issued against Bilal Akr on charges of drug trafficking, among other criminal acts.
Last week, fierce clashes rocked the camp after Bilal Akr militias attempted to hold sway over other areas in the camp.
According to the Lebanese National News Agency, deadly clashes burst out between Bilal Akr militias and Abu Mohamed Badran band, claiming the lives of Bilal Akr, Samir Badran, and a girl called Haylana. The casualties were transferred to al-Makasid Hospital. Bilal Akr’s brother sustained serious wounds.
Lebanese army troops cordoned off the vicinity of the camp in an attempt to restore calm in the area.
Several arrest warrants were issued against Bilal Akr on charges of drug trafficking, among other criminal acts.
Last week, fierce clashes rocked the camp after Bilal Akr militias attempted to hold sway over other areas in the camp.
24 june 2017
During a speech at Israel’s Herzliya conference, aimed at discussing the country’s national policies, ultraright Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman rejected the possibility of Palestinian refugees from historic Palestine, which Israel was built on, being able to return to their lands within the 1967 borders, a right that is upheld by United Nations Resolution 194.
“We will not agree to the return of a single refugee to within the ‘67 borders,” Lieberman reportedly said. “There will never be another Prime Minister who makes propositions to Palestinians like Ehud Olmert did,” he added, referring to a 2008 peace proposal introduced by the former prime minister.
The right of return for Palestinian refugees is a central demand among Palestinians and their leadership, Ma’an News Agency reports. The demand also represents a powerful symbolic connection to their lands and homes they were displaced from, as many Palestinians still possess original keys to their homes that were consumed by the state of Israel 69 years ago.
According to Israeli media, Lieberman also said that an end to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict would “not solve the problems – it will make them worse,” and noted that Israel should first “reach a regional agreement with moderate Sunni states, and only then an agreement with the Palestinians.”
He also went on to question the legitimacy of Palestinian citizens of Israel being part of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, noting that the Joint List political bloc — representing parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Knesset — refused to acquiesce to Zionist ideologies.
“The only place they don’t want to leave is Israel. Why? Because it’s good for them here,” he said, referring to Palestinian citizens of Israel, making up approximately 20 percent of the population, whose families lived on the lands of historic Palestine before the creation of the state of Israel.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), 66 percent of Palestinians who were living in British-Mandate Palestine in 1948 were expelled from historic Palestine and displaced from their homes and lands during the creation of Israel, referred to as the Nakba, or catastrophe, among Palestinians.
On the topic of Gaza, Lieberman reportedly said “I don’t think we need to get into it. It won’t end soon,” before calling the dire humanitarian situation in the besieged Palestinian territory an “intra-Palestinian crisis,” echoing statements made by US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who placed full blame of the dire humanitarian situation in the besieged Gaza Strip on Hamas, and absolved Israel of any responsibility for the ongoing crisis.
Lieberman also accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of attempting to influence Hamas to go to war with Israel by exacerbating the crisis in Gaza by cutting Palestinian Authority (PA) payments for electricity supplied to Gaza from Israel.
“Abbas is going to increase cuts and soon stop the payment of salaries in Gaza and the transfer of fuel to the strip as a two-pronged strategy: Hurt Hamas and drag it to war with Israel,” he reportedly said.
Lieberman’s statements came amid an attempted renewal of the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process” by right-wing US President Donald Trump.
Most recently, on Wednesday evening, a meeting was held between Abbas and Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner in the central occupied West Bank city of Ramallah to discuss reviving peace talks with Israel.
Executive Committee Member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Wasel Abu Yousif said in statement, at the time, that reviving a political process requires certain determinants based on international law: a time limit for ending the 50-year Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory must be set to establish a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and Palestinian refugees must be granted the right of return to the homes and villages from which they were expelled.
However, Israeli leaders have been public on their rejection of the Palestinian Authority (PA) taking over East Jerusalem, which was officially annexed by Israel in 1980, and have regularly voiced their opposition to the return of Palestinian refugees or even the halting of illegal Israeli settlement expansions in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s right-wing education minister, has also introduced a bill in the Israeli parliament that would prevent any future divisions of Jerusalem, by mending Israel’s Basic Law on Jerusalem to necessitate the approval of 80 of the 120 Knesset members to make any changes to the law, instead of the regular majority vote.
“The purpose of this law is to unify Jerusalem forever,” Bennett reportedly said, adding that his legislation would make it “impossible” to divide Jerusalem.
While the PA and the international community do not recognize the legality of the occupation of East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank since 1967, many Palestinians consider that all historic Palestine has been occupied since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
A growing number of activists have criticized a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as unsustainable and unlikely to bring durable peace given the existing political context, proposing instead a binational state with equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.
“We will not agree to the return of a single refugee to within the ‘67 borders,” Lieberman reportedly said. “There will never be another Prime Minister who makes propositions to Palestinians like Ehud Olmert did,” he added, referring to a 2008 peace proposal introduced by the former prime minister.
The right of return for Palestinian refugees is a central demand among Palestinians and their leadership, Ma’an News Agency reports. The demand also represents a powerful symbolic connection to their lands and homes they were displaced from, as many Palestinians still possess original keys to their homes that were consumed by the state of Israel 69 years ago.
According to Israeli media, Lieberman also said that an end to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict would “not solve the problems – it will make them worse,” and noted that Israel should first “reach a regional agreement with moderate Sunni states, and only then an agreement with the Palestinians.”
He also went on to question the legitimacy of Palestinian citizens of Israel being part of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, noting that the Joint List political bloc — representing parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Knesset — refused to acquiesce to Zionist ideologies.
“The only place they don’t want to leave is Israel. Why? Because it’s good for them here,” he said, referring to Palestinian citizens of Israel, making up approximately 20 percent of the population, whose families lived on the lands of historic Palestine before the creation of the state of Israel.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), 66 percent of Palestinians who were living in British-Mandate Palestine in 1948 were expelled from historic Palestine and displaced from their homes and lands during the creation of Israel, referred to as the Nakba, or catastrophe, among Palestinians.
On the topic of Gaza, Lieberman reportedly said “I don’t think we need to get into it. It won’t end soon,” before calling the dire humanitarian situation in the besieged Palestinian territory an “intra-Palestinian crisis,” echoing statements made by US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who placed full blame of the dire humanitarian situation in the besieged Gaza Strip on Hamas, and absolved Israel of any responsibility for the ongoing crisis.
Lieberman also accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of attempting to influence Hamas to go to war with Israel by exacerbating the crisis in Gaza by cutting Palestinian Authority (PA) payments for electricity supplied to Gaza from Israel.
“Abbas is going to increase cuts and soon stop the payment of salaries in Gaza and the transfer of fuel to the strip as a two-pronged strategy: Hurt Hamas and drag it to war with Israel,” he reportedly said.
Lieberman’s statements came amid an attempted renewal of the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process” by right-wing US President Donald Trump.
Most recently, on Wednesday evening, a meeting was held between Abbas and Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner in the central occupied West Bank city of Ramallah to discuss reviving peace talks with Israel.
Executive Committee Member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Wasel Abu Yousif said in statement, at the time, that reviving a political process requires certain determinants based on international law: a time limit for ending the 50-year Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory must be set to establish a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and Palestinian refugees must be granted the right of return to the homes and villages from which they were expelled.
However, Israeli leaders have been public on their rejection of the Palestinian Authority (PA) taking over East Jerusalem, which was officially annexed by Israel in 1980, and have regularly voiced their opposition to the return of Palestinian refugees or even the halting of illegal Israeli settlement expansions in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s right-wing education minister, has also introduced a bill in the Israeli parliament that would prevent any future divisions of Jerusalem, by mending Israel’s Basic Law on Jerusalem to necessitate the approval of 80 of the 120 Knesset members to make any changes to the law, instead of the regular majority vote.
“The purpose of this law is to unify Jerusalem forever,” Bennett reportedly said, adding that his legislation would make it “impossible” to divide Jerusalem.
While the PA and the international community do not recognize the legality of the occupation of East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank since 1967, many Palestinians consider that all historic Palestine has been occupied since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
A growing number of activists have criticized a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as unsustainable and unlikely to bring durable peace given the existing political context, proposing instead a binational state with equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.
11 june 2017
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that he had told US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley that the UN should consider shutting down operations of its Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday, Netanyahu claimed that "in various UNRWA institutions there is a lot of incitement against Israel, and therefore the existence of UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem rather than solve it."
"Therefore, the time has come to dismantle UNRWA and merge its components with the [UN] High Commissioner for Refugees," the premier added.
UNRWA, among other UN bodies, have been the subject of considerable pressure by Israel in recent months. On Friday, Israel called on the UN to “strongly and unequivocally condemn Hamas” and formally classify the group a “terrorist organization”.
Established by the UN General Assembly in 1949, the agency exists expressly to provide aid to "Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, and the Gaza Strip."
Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday, Netanyahu claimed that "in various UNRWA institutions there is a lot of incitement against Israel, and therefore the existence of UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem rather than solve it."
"Therefore, the time has come to dismantle UNRWA and merge its components with the [UN] High Commissioner for Refugees," the premier added.
UNRWA, among other UN bodies, have been the subject of considerable pressure by Israel in recent months. On Friday, Israel called on the UN to “strongly and unequivocally condemn Hamas” and formally classify the group a “terrorist organization”.
Established by the UN General Assembly in 1949, the agency exists expressly to provide aid to "Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, and the Gaza Strip."
10 june 2017
nsnbc : The United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, condemned in the strongest possible terms, the construction of tunnels underneath UNRWA operated schools as a violation of the agency’s neutrality.
In a statement released by UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness, the agency stated that on June 1, UNRWA discovered part of a tunnel that passes under two adjacent Agency schools in Maghazi camp in the Gaza Strip, namely the Maghazi Elementary Boys A&B School and the Maghazi Preparatory Boys School. The schools are located on the same premises.
The discovery was reportedly made during the summer vacation, at a time when the schools are empty, and in the course of work related to the construction of an extension of one of the buildings. The agency further stated that:
“Following a thorough inspection of the site, UNRWA can confirm that the tunnel has no entry or exit points on the premises nor is it connected to the schools or other buildings in any way.
UNRWA condemns the existence of such tunnels in the strongest possible terms. It is unacceptable that students and staff are placed at risk in such a way. The construction and presence of tunnels under UN premises are incompatible with the respect of privileges and immunities owed to the United Nations under applicable international law, which provides that UN premises shall be inviolable. The sanctity and neutrality of UN premises must be preserved at all times.
UNRWA has robustly intervened and protested to Hamas in Gaza. It has also informed them that the Agency intends to seal the tunnel under its premises, as an immediate priority. We will not allow any students or staff into the building until the issue is resolved.
The Agency again demands that all parties respect the neutrality and inviolability of United Nations premises at all times. Furthermore we demand they desist from any activities or conduct that put beneficiaries and staff at risk and undermine the ability of UN staff to provide assistance to Palestine refugees in safety and security.”
The discovery of the tunnels puts into perspective incidents like the Israeli shelling of one of its schools that was sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in July 2014, after Hamas fighters were observed launching rockets from the vicinity of the school. Moreover, UNRWA discovered rockets made by Hamas’ armed wing – the Qassam Brigades – between to other UNWRA schools that at the time accommodated 1,500 internally displaced persons. UNRWA, in 2014, condemned Israel’s shelling of the school as unequivocally as it condemns the construction of tunnels under school premises.
CH/L – nsnbc 09.06.2017
In a statement released by UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness, the agency stated that on June 1, UNRWA discovered part of a tunnel that passes under two adjacent Agency schools in Maghazi camp in the Gaza Strip, namely the Maghazi Elementary Boys A&B School and the Maghazi Preparatory Boys School. The schools are located on the same premises.
The discovery was reportedly made during the summer vacation, at a time when the schools are empty, and in the course of work related to the construction of an extension of one of the buildings. The agency further stated that:
“Following a thorough inspection of the site, UNRWA can confirm that the tunnel has no entry or exit points on the premises nor is it connected to the schools or other buildings in any way.
UNRWA condemns the existence of such tunnels in the strongest possible terms. It is unacceptable that students and staff are placed at risk in such a way. The construction and presence of tunnels under UN premises are incompatible with the respect of privileges and immunities owed to the United Nations under applicable international law, which provides that UN premises shall be inviolable. The sanctity and neutrality of UN premises must be preserved at all times.
UNRWA has robustly intervened and protested to Hamas in Gaza. It has also informed them that the Agency intends to seal the tunnel under its premises, as an immediate priority. We will not allow any students or staff into the building until the issue is resolved.
The Agency again demands that all parties respect the neutrality and inviolability of United Nations premises at all times. Furthermore we demand they desist from any activities or conduct that put beneficiaries and staff at risk and undermine the ability of UN staff to provide assistance to Palestine refugees in safety and security.”
The discovery of the tunnels puts into perspective incidents like the Israeli shelling of one of its schools that was sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in July 2014, after Hamas fighters were observed launching rockets from the vicinity of the school. Moreover, UNRWA discovered rockets made by Hamas’ armed wing – the Qassam Brigades – between to other UNWRA schools that at the time accommodated 1,500 internally displaced persons. UNRWA, in 2014, condemned Israel’s shelling of the school as unequivocally as it condemns the construction of tunnels under school premises.
CH/L – nsnbc 09.06.2017
31 may 2017
The Action Group for the Palestinians in Syria (AGPS) said on Wednesday that 3,502 Palestinian refugees were killed in Syria due to the civil war that has been ongoing since 2011.
A report published by the AGPS on Wednesday evening pointed out that 1,141 Palestinian refugees died by shelling, 873 died in the clashes between the Syrian regime army and the Syrian opposition's armed groups while 462 died under torture in the Syrian regime prisons without pointing to the death circumstances of the rest of the refugees.
The AGPS is a London-based group that was founded in 2012 through a collective initiative by Palestinian and Arab figures.
The group follows up and documents the violations against the Palestinians of Syria, according to its official website.
According to UN estimates, 450,000 Palestinian refugees still live in Syria, 95% of whom need assistance.
A report published by the AGPS on Wednesday evening pointed out that 1,141 Palestinian refugees died by shelling, 873 died in the clashes between the Syrian regime army and the Syrian opposition's armed groups while 462 died under torture in the Syrian regime prisons without pointing to the death circumstances of the rest of the refugees.
The AGPS is a London-based group that was founded in 2012 through a collective initiative by Palestinian and Arab figures.
The group follows up and documents the violations against the Palestinians of Syria, according to its official website.
According to UN estimates, 450,000 Palestinian refugees still live in Syria, 95% of whom need assistance.
27 may 2017
The Action Group for the Palestinians of Syria (AGPS) said on Saturday that a neighborhood inhabited by Palestinian families in Daraa city in Syria was bombed by a ground-to-ground missile causing extensive damage to a number of residential buildings.
The AGPS said in its daily report on its Facebook page that the Palestinian refugees in southern Syria are suffering from difficult living and security conditions especially in Daraa camp where the shelling continues unabated causing, according to unofficial statistics, the destruction of about 70% of the buildings and the fall of a number of victims.
The Group reported that two Palestinian women from Muzayrib town in southern Syria were arrested by the Syrian security forces while on their way to receive financial aid disbursed by the UNRWA.
Many Palestinians in Daraa camp and Muzayrib have called on the UNRWA to find a way to deliver aid directly to them because of their fear of being arrested by the Syrian security forces and their allied militias.
Dozens of Palestinian families who have fled from Khan al-Shih refugee camp in the countryside of Damascus to Idlib city are facing extremely harsh conditions.
The AGPS received many appeals from these families calling on the UNRWA to do its duty toward them. The displaced families reported that they did not receive any relief or financial aid which the UNRWA provides periodically for the Palestinian refugees in Syria.
About 2,500 Palestinian refugees were forcibly displaced from Khan al-Shih refugee camp to the northern province of Idlib starting from 28th November 2016 following the signing of a reconciliation agreement between the Syrian regime and the opposition that includes evacuating Khan al-Shih and the areas surrounding it.
The AGPS said in its daily report on its Facebook page that the Palestinian refugees in southern Syria are suffering from difficult living and security conditions especially in Daraa camp where the shelling continues unabated causing, according to unofficial statistics, the destruction of about 70% of the buildings and the fall of a number of victims.
The Group reported that two Palestinian women from Muzayrib town in southern Syria were arrested by the Syrian security forces while on their way to receive financial aid disbursed by the UNRWA.
Many Palestinians in Daraa camp and Muzayrib have called on the UNRWA to find a way to deliver aid directly to them because of their fear of being arrested by the Syrian security forces and their allied militias.
Dozens of Palestinian families who have fled from Khan al-Shih refugee camp in the countryside of Damascus to Idlib city are facing extremely harsh conditions.
The AGPS received many appeals from these families calling on the UNRWA to do its duty toward them. The displaced families reported that they did not receive any relief or financial aid which the UNRWA provides periodically for the Palestinian refugees in Syria.
About 2,500 Palestinian refugees were forcibly displaced from Khan al-Shih refugee camp to the northern province of Idlib starting from 28th November 2016 following the signing of a reconciliation agreement between the Syrian regime and the opposition that includes evacuating Khan al-Shih and the areas surrounding it.
16 may 2017
“Hamas rejects all attempts to erase the rights of the refugees, including the attempts to settle them outside Palestine and the so-called alternative homeland. Compensation to the Palestinian refugees for the harm they have suffered as a consequence of banishing them and occupying their land is an indisputable right that goes hand in hand with their right to return. They are to receive compensation upon their return and this does not negate or diminish their right to return,” this was a quote from article 13 of Hamas’s Document of General Principles and Policies launched by the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, in May 2017.
This document, which included all positions, principles and general political lines adopted by the Movement since its formation, emphasizes that Palestine’s borders are from the Jordan River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. And from Ras Al-Naqoura in the north to Umm Al Rashrash in the south, as an integral territorial unit: the land of the Palestinian people and their homeland.
The document added, “The expulsion and banishment of the Palestinian people from their land and the establishment of the Zionist entity therein do not annul the right of the Palestinian people to their entire land and do not entrench any rights therein for the benefit of the expansionist Zionist entity.”
Refugees department
Hamas has established a special department for refugees in 2001, under the leadership of the Movement, as a specialized department for Palestinian refugees wherever they are.
Since its formation, the Department has endeavored to preserve the historical, political, economic and cultural rights of the Palestinian refugees, to raise awareness among the Palestinian people about their cause, to improve their situation and to support and coordinate local, regional and international efforts to protect their rights and compensation and to contribute to realizing the conditions that enable them to return to their cities and villages.
According to Dr. Essam Edwan, the head of the refugees department, “The department seeks to develop the institutional work of refugees in line with the comprehensive project of liberation, and to strengthen the steadfastness of refugees in places of refuge so as to enable them to uphold their rights and constants.”
Edwan pointed out in a statement to the PIC that the Department contributes to the activation of the cause of refugees, mobilizing them in their places of refuge, in order to qualify them to play a leading role in the liberation and return projects.
It also seeks to develop a unified national Palestinian position that preserves the rights of refugees, as well as to improve the level of media discourse and cultural and artistic works to serve the refugees’ issue.
Edwan stressed his Movement's keenness to bring about positive change at the Arab, Islamic and international levels in favor of the refugees’ issue.
Constant positions
On more than one occasion, the leaders of the Hamas Movement, headed by Ismail Haneyya, who recently became the head of the political bureau of Hamas, reiterated their absolute rejection of the alternative homeland project, or giving any concessions by his Movement on the refugees’ issue.
Hamas’s Document of General Principles and Policies, summarized this issue by saying, “The right of the Palestinian refugees and the displaced to return to their homes from which they were banished or were banned from returning to – whether in the lands occupied in 1948 or in 1967 (that is the whole of Palestine), is a natural right, both individual and collective. This right is confirmed by all divine laws as well as by the basic principles of human rights and international law. It is an inalienable right and cannot be dispensed with by any party, whether Palestinian, Arab or international.”
It is noteworthy that most of the leaders of the Hamas Movement are refugees, especially the head of the political bureau Ismail Haneyya, who hails from the village of Jura in the 1948 occupied city of Ashkelon, and who is still living in a refugee camp to the west of Gaza city.
Strategic aspirations
Writer and political analyst Ali Huwaidi stressed that Hamas has viewed the issue of return and refugees with strategic aspirations, based on what is stated in its newly released document, which assured that the Palestinian issue is essentially an issue of an occupied land and a forcibly-displaced people.
Huwaidi clarified that the Hamas document has worked on setting the foundations and roots of the right of return, through its adherence to the principle of resistance as a strategic option to liberate Palestine, achieve return, and build a full sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Huwaidi stressed that “In line with this sense, the Hamas Movement, 30 years after its formation, and after 69 years since the Nakba of Palestine, has maintained its national principles and strategic vision for the issue of refugees and displaced persons, and their right of return to their homes in Occupied Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and not to any other place, conditioning this return in its historic document to liberation, the thing that the vast majority of the Palestinian people believe in.”
This document, which included all positions, principles and general political lines adopted by the Movement since its formation, emphasizes that Palestine’s borders are from the Jordan River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. And from Ras Al-Naqoura in the north to Umm Al Rashrash in the south, as an integral territorial unit: the land of the Palestinian people and their homeland.
The document added, “The expulsion and banishment of the Palestinian people from their land and the establishment of the Zionist entity therein do not annul the right of the Palestinian people to their entire land and do not entrench any rights therein for the benefit of the expansionist Zionist entity.”
Refugees department
Hamas has established a special department for refugees in 2001, under the leadership of the Movement, as a specialized department for Palestinian refugees wherever they are.
Since its formation, the Department has endeavored to preserve the historical, political, economic and cultural rights of the Palestinian refugees, to raise awareness among the Palestinian people about their cause, to improve their situation and to support and coordinate local, regional and international efforts to protect their rights and compensation and to contribute to realizing the conditions that enable them to return to their cities and villages.
According to Dr. Essam Edwan, the head of the refugees department, “The department seeks to develop the institutional work of refugees in line with the comprehensive project of liberation, and to strengthen the steadfastness of refugees in places of refuge so as to enable them to uphold their rights and constants.”
Edwan pointed out in a statement to the PIC that the Department contributes to the activation of the cause of refugees, mobilizing them in their places of refuge, in order to qualify them to play a leading role in the liberation and return projects.
It also seeks to develop a unified national Palestinian position that preserves the rights of refugees, as well as to improve the level of media discourse and cultural and artistic works to serve the refugees’ issue.
Edwan stressed his Movement's keenness to bring about positive change at the Arab, Islamic and international levels in favor of the refugees’ issue.
Constant positions
On more than one occasion, the leaders of the Hamas Movement, headed by Ismail Haneyya, who recently became the head of the political bureau of Hamas, reiterated their absolute rejection of the alternative homeland project, or giving any concessions by his Movement on the refugees’ issue.
Hamas’s Document of General Principles and Policies, summarized this issue by saying, “The right of the Palestinian refugees and the displaced to return to their homes from which they were banished or were banned from returning to – whether in the lands occupied in 1948 or in 1967 (that is the whole of Palestine), is a natural right, both individual and collective. This right is confirmed by all divine laws as well as by the basic principles of human rights and international law. It is an inalienable right and cannot be dispensed with by any party, whether Palestinian, Arab or international.”
It is noteworthy that most of the leaders of the Hamas Movement are refugees, especially the head of the political bureau Ismail Haneyya, who hails from the village of Jura in the 1948 occupied city of Ashkelon, and who is still living in a refugee camp to the west of Gaza city.
Strategic aspirations
Writer and political analyst Ali Huwaidi stressed that Hamas has viewed the issue of return and refugees with strategic aspirations, based on what is stated in its newly released document, which assured that the Palestinian issue is essentially an issue of an occupied land and a forcibly-displaced people.
Huwaidi clarified that the Hamas document has worked on setting the foundations and roots of the right of return, through its adherence to the principle of resistance as a strategic option to liberate Palestine, achieve return, and build a full sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Huwaidi stressed that “In line with this sense, the Hamas Movement, 30 years after its formation, and after 69 years since the Nakba of Palestine, has maintained its national principles and strategic vision for the issue of refugees and displaced persons, and their right of return to their homes in Occupied Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and not to any other place, conditioning this return in its historic document to liberation, the thing that the vast majority of the Palestinian people believe in.”
