------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 23:52:28 +0300
Priority: normal
Subject: For moderation - from BADIL: Open Letter to Peace Now
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
BADIL Resource Center
For immediate release, 16-7-1999
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THE PEACE OF THE BRAVE WILL INCLUDE THE RIGHT OF RETURN
Open Letter to Peace Now
by
BADIL Friends Forum/Southern West Bank; BADIL Resource Center
15 July 1999
We the undersigned, Palestinians and Palestinian refugees in search
of a just peace in our country, are particularly concerned about all
efforts, Israeli and international, at dismissing Palestinian refugee
rights, even before Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the refugee
question have actually begun. We wish to emphasize here, that the
attempt to push the Palestinian negotiators into signing an agreement
which does not provide for our right of return endangers the current
effort for peace in the region. Five million Palestinian refugees
continue to struggle for their right to return to their homes and
property taken away from them in 1948.
We are particularly concerned about the stand in respect to our right
of return taken by progressive Israelis and the Israeli peace forces -
among them Peace Now - who have shared our struggle against the
illegal Israeli settlements, for human rights, and for a Palestinian
state with Jerusalem as the capital shared by the Israeli and the
Palestinian peoples.
Based on the above, we completely reject the recent statement of
Peace Now saying that,
"The right of return exists. They [Palestinians] have the right of
return. But they don't have the right to realize that right.
Basically, those who want to return to Jaffa are exactly like the Jew
who wants to return to Hebron. Both the Jew who wishes to return to
Hebron and the Palestinian who wants to return to Jaffa are
extremists who will have to forego their desires." (Mossy Raz,
General Secretary of Peace Now, on Clintons Comments, interview with
Aaron Lerner, 2 July 1999).
The above statement represents just another version of the well-known
Israeli propaganda aimed at negating Palestinian rights. As common
for Israeli propaganda, this argument:
1) Violates international law and UN Resolutions: Israeli settlements
in the 1967 occupied territories are illegal according to the Fourth
Geneva Convention, UN Resolution 242, a.o.; the right of return of
the Palestinian refugees is protected by UN Resolution 194, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and a series of international
laws and principles which have led the international community to
enforce the return of Kosovar refugees to their homes;
2) Is factually wrong in that it compares Jewish people who wish to
occupy land and property in Hebron - which do not belong to them -
with Palestinian refugees who wish to return to lands and homes which
rightfully belong to them. The fact that Jewish settlers in Hebron
have no rightful claim to the properties they occupy in Hebron was
clarified by the descendents of the families of Hebron's Jewish
community in a statement issued already in 1996 (see text below).
Based on the above, we call on Israeli and Jewish peace forces in
general, and Peace Now in particular, to take serious the challenge
presented by the Palestinian right of return and to work for creating
a vision among Israeli society and Jewish communities world wide that
can facilitate the construction of a framework of peace and
coexistence which includes the internationally recognized right of
Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and regain access to
their properties taken away from them in the past. The "Peace of the
Brave" must not remain an empty phrase!
Signed for the BADIL Friends Forum by:
Muhammad al Lahham, Head of Popular Service Committees in Palestinian
Refugee
Camps/West Bank;
Jamal Ferraj, Journalist, Deheishe Camp;
Salem Abu Hawwash, Reseacher, Dura/Hebron;
Samir Ata 'Odeh, Popular Service Committee, Aida Camp;
Nadi Ferraj, BADIL Board, Deheishe Camp;
Issa Qaraq'a, Head, Palestinian Prisoners' Club, Aida Camp;
Adnan Ajarmeh, Youth Activities Center, Aida Camp;
Ibrahim Abu Srour, Rehabilitation Center for the Handicapped, Aida
Camp;
Afif Ghatashe, Youth Activities Center, al-Fawwar Camp;
------------------------------------------
"Message from the Original Jewish Community of Hebron:
EVACUATE THE SETTLERS (28 December 1996)
Seek Peace of Hebron
We, the descendents of the families of Hebron's ancient Jewish
community, sons, grandsons and great-grandsons of the Jews who lived
in the city for hundreds of years - want peace.
Peace for the City of Hebron, Peace for Israel
Now, when the city of our fathers and forefathers is in the eye of a
storm, threatening to explode the political process and to destroy
the prospects of peace, we feel an obligation to say what is in our
hearts.
Settlers living in Hebron's heart do not have the right to speak in
the name of the old Jewish community, and their pretensions to be
following the path of our fathers is a deceit and deceiving. They are
alien to the culture and way of life of the Hebron Jews, who in the
course of generations created a heritage of peace between peoples and
understanding between faiths.
The settlers who have taken possession of Jewish property in the
heart of Hebron and made it theirs, have done thievish work. No one
granted them the right that is not theirs, to be the heirs of our
fathers, no matter if we speak of private property or community
property. And they intend to add sins to their crimes and to possess
other lands and structures.
Hebron Will Decided for Good or Evil
Therefore the government of Israel must evacuate the handful of
settlers from the city at once, before they succeed in exploding the
peace process and destroying the prospects of peace.
Amnon Bierman; Rachel Grundland (Zarfati family); Ronen Doron (Slonim
family); Etty Horn (Franco family); Chaim Hazan (Avishar family);
Ovadya Hassun (Hassun family); Tamar Hassun (Hassun family); Ofra
Yerushalmi-Seidof (Zarfati family); Dafne Mendelowitz (Zarfati
family); Yaakov Meshorer (Mani family); Meir Slonim (Slonim family);
Yonah Rochlin (Mani, Hassun); Sima Schneider (Slonim family); Moshe
Gelmor (Hassun family); Ahuva Donivksy (Zarfati family); Yael Doron
(Slonim family); Chaim Hanegbi (Bajaio family); Michal Hassun (Hassun
family); Rami Hassun (Hassun family); Orit Hassun-Walder (Hassun
family); Yair Kidan (Schneierson family); Asher Meshorer (Mani
family); Orah Slonim (Slonim family);
Batya Perla (Kleiers family); Eliezer Shani (Slonim family);
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For further information contact: BADIL Resource Center, PO Box 728,
Bethlehem, Palestine; tel/fax. 02-2747346; email: [log in to unmask];
website: www.badil.org
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