For Immediate Release
September 1, 2005

[Please Forward Widely]

Open Letter to The Steering Committee of The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

From The Coordinating Committee of Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

We thank you for your open letter of August 26, 2005 (see attached). We also welcome your recent endorsement of the right of all Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their original homes in any part of pre-1948 Palestine without compromise. We ask the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (EOC) to confirm publicly whether or not it now accepts Al-Awda's Points of Unity (see attached). These points are our frame of reference. They also determine the scope and extent of Al-Awda's Chapters' formal relations and membership associations with other organizations and entities such as yours. The decision Al-Awda's coordinating committee reached in May 2005 permits our chapters to work with other organizations or coalitions on a case by case/event by event basis. However, it does not allow for formal membership of organizations and coalitions that have positions at variance
with Al-Awda's Points of Unity.

Al-Awda's Points of Unity make it clear that the Zionist colonization of Arab Palestine began long before 1967. In fact, it began long before 1948. Occupying Bara'am, Shefa' Amr or Ibillin in Galilee should not be viewed any differently from the occupation of al-Khalil, Beitunia or Ramallah in the West Bank: These occupations are settler-colonialist by nature. In
fact, the perceived differences between the Zionist settler-colonialist project in the West Bank and areas seized in 1948 are rather superficial. This is why we have always been alarmed by the EOC's failure to commemorate the 1948 Nakba which represents 57 years of dispossession, occupation, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid.

Indeed, we were also deeply troubled by the EOC's statement of June 5, 2005 calling for the commemoration of "the 38th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Palestine." Although the EOC eventually altered the offensive sentence to specify this date as the beginning of the occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank including East Jerusalem, it did so only after being
challenged. However, the EOC did not include any language in recognition of the Nakba or the 57-year occupation of Palestine. That is why we find it disingenuous on the part of the EOC to claim that its position on the Right to Return has been misunderstood.

Similarly, the recent talking points circulated by the EOC on the "Gaza disengagement" failed to mention that neary 80% of the population of the Gaza Strip are refugees denied their right to return. Further, the EOC's website continues to frame the conflict between the settler-colonialist
entity of "Israel" and the Palestinian Arabs in terms of "38 years of occupation."

Even more revealing, however, are the series of EOC strategy papers found on the EOC's website.

An August 2001 "Strategy Paper," outlines the rationale behind the formation of the EOC (http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=24 ). Based on this paper, it seems that elements in the "progressive community", were becoming increasingly concerned with Al-Awda's growth and popularity. In their view, a counter strategy was necessary in order to contain and control the narrative. After all, Al-Awda had not only succeeded in organizing two consecutive successful Right to Return rallies in Washington, D.C. and New York City, but we were in the midst of organizing a third major event in New York City. There was ample evidence that this event, a third rally, was going to be massive. Unfortunately, it had
to be cancelled in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy. It was in this context that the first EOC "strategy paper", which called for the creation of an alternative to our organization, was circulated. What seems to have concerned the EOC founders was the clarity of Al-Awda's Right to Return discourse.

The following is a direct quote:

"And we speak of return in language largely shorn of nuance, ignoring its contemporary resonance.... We speak in slogans, a dangerous shortcut...So we say, or we hear, 'we have 194 and we have 4 million refugees and we're all going home. 'Period. Full stop. To speak with subtlety, to argue that while the right is absolute that implementation of the right is, like that of all rights, remarkably negotiable, is somehow thought to betray the nation."

Instead, an alternative discourse was proposed, supposedly more "subtle" and capable of reaching American audiences. One strategy proposed by the EOC's Strategy Paper centers on distinguishing between the Right to Return as an absolute right, and its implementation. In other words, while it was recognized that the refugees have the right to return to their original
towns in villages, the implementation, scope and extent of this was indicated as subject to negotiations. One argument that is often used to justify this and similar attempts to
dilute the Right to Return is the need to devise political agendas that would make successful work within the US political system possible. Such argument is deeply troubling for two reasons.

First, it blames Palestinians, the victims, for the failure to gain the support of the American people. The possibility that US hostility towards the Palestinians stems from their refusal to submit to American and Israeli dictates is not entertained by the EOC's strategy paper.

Second, it implicitly demands that Palestinians refashion their discourse, narrative and identity so as to make them palatable to American sensibilities. This mind-set is what Franz Fanon labeled "Black Skin, White Masks."

In fact, the EOC's literature on the Right to Return included an entire section entitled "Is Compromise Possible?" However, we have noticed that, in the past week, this section was removed reflecting a new position expressed in the "open letter" on August 26, 2005 from the EOC steering committee to Al-Awda.

Nevertheless, support for the Right to Return is not measured by a few statements, open letters or even conference resolutions, that are hardly acted upon. EOC should reflect the reality of its new position on the Right to Return with action - action that places the Right to Return in its proper central role at the existential core of the Palestinian struggle for national liberation.

For example, in response to concerns from Al-Awda and other organizations, EOC adopted the Right to Return at its 2004 conference. However, this has hardly been reflected in the work and advocacy of EOC; EOC has simply undertaken too few activities to promote and support the Right to Return or the Right to Return movement. If EOC's recent recognition of the centrality
of the Right to Return is true, this should be reflected in its mission statement and bolstered with a serious (not token) program of action. It is our genuine hope that the days of EOC de-prioritizing the Right to Return for "tactical" reasons are behind us.

Finally, we feel it important to stress that we consider it a fundamental contradiction to advocate for the Right to Return while accepting the occupation of any part of pre-1948 Palestine. Implementation of the Right of Return is, in our view, inconsistent with the proposed two-state final solution and its implications. The demand of our time is to end the US/Zionist occupation of all of Palestine. At the core of that demand, is the implementation of the Right to Return. There is no more fundamental demand for any organization or institution which seeks to act in solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian people.

Sincerely,

The Coordinating Committee
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

_________________________

Al-Awda's POU, which were ratified at our April 16-18, 2004 convention in NYC, and by the elected chapter representatives of our organization thereafter, are as follows:

1. This Coalition affirms that the Palestinian Arab people, regardless of their religious affiliation, are indigenous to Palestine. Therefore, they are entitled to live anywhere in Palestine which encompasses present-day " Israel", the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This Coalition regards the "Israeli" definition of Jewish nationals, granting exclusive rights to citizenship and
land to any Jew from anywhere in the world, as part of the racism and discrimination inherent in Zionist ideology which underlies the policies and laws of the settler state of "Israel".

2. This Coalition unequivocally supports the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their original towns, villages and lands anywhere in Palestine from which they were expelled. This Coalition also unequivocally supports the rights of all Palestinian refugees to compensation for damages inflicted on their property and lives, and to restitution of all destroyed and confiscated property. All Palestinians are entitled to the rights to self-determination, to political, economic and civil equality, and to live in a single democratic state for all its citizens in all of Palestine. The Palestinian national identity encompasses more than 5.5 million people living in exile, more than 2.5 million living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and more than 1.2 million living within the areas of Palestine controlled by "Israel" since 1948.

3. This Coalition firmly stands against the continued displacement of Palestinians, the construction of illegal Jewish-only colonies in the form of residential settlements, the racist confiscation of land and the demolition of homes since 1948. This Coalition firmly stands against the collective punishment of Palestinians, and all violations of Palestinian civil, economic, political, national and human rights. This Coalition abhors and condemns the use of massacres and abuse of civilians to further the expansion of " Israel" to the detriment of Palestinian society.

4. This Coalition supports the struggle for the liberation of Palestine and views it as a struggle against all forms of colonialism. This struggle is inseparable from the universal and labor struggles for social, economic and national equality, development, justice and freedom against an imposed global new world order. This Coalition upholds all of the values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Fourth Geneva Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Political Rights of Women, and the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. This
Coalition also upholds the African Charter of Human and People's Rights, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act (Pub. L. 99-440) and the American Convention on Human Rights.

5. This Coalition respects, recognizes and supports the central role of Palestinian women in the struggle for national liberation and the right to return. This includes the leadership of Palestinian women in the right to return movement.

6. This Coalition will work to educate the public about "Israeli" injustices the US government subsidizes with billions of dollars annually. Until the dismantlement of the exclusionary and racist character of "Israel ", and until all Palestinians are granted the right to return and achieve equality, this Coalition is united in working for and demanding:

--An end to all US political, military and economic aid to " Israel".
--The divestment of all public and private entities from all "Israeli" corporations and American corporations with subsidiaries operating within " Israel".
--An end to the investment of Labor Union members' pension funds in"Israel".
--The boycott of all "Israeli" products.
--The right to return for all Palestinian refugees to their original towns, villages and lands with compensation for damages inflicted on their property and lives.
--The right for all Palestinian refugees to full restitution of all confiscated and destroyed property.
--The formation of an independent, democratic state for all its citizens in all of Palestine .

__________________________

Open Letter to Al-Awda, August 26, 2005

NOTE: This open letter from the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation to Al-Awda comes in response to a May 2005 resolution passed by its Coordinating Committee, which reads, in part:

"No chapter of Al-Awda is to formally associate itself, nor establish any formal relationship with the [ sic ] U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation, the United for Peace and Justice Coalition, or any organization that refuses to support the right of all Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their original homes, farms, villages and towns in any part of Palestine as it existed before the establishment of 'Israel' in 1948, and to compensation."

Open Letter from the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation to Al-Awda, August 26, 2005

It is with both surprise and disappointment that the leadership of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation heard of a declaration by a group within the national Al-Awda campaign which forbids member organizations from associating with the US Campaign. The reasons
apparently have to do with the stance of the US Campaign on the Right of Return of Palestinian refugees. Though it is hard to imagine that there remains any confusion on this issue, the purpose of this open letter is to clarify.

From its inception, the US Campaign has endorsed all relevant UN resolutions and international human rights conventions, including those regarding the Right of Return. Thus, the US Campaign has always endorsed the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to homes they
left, for whatever reason, and to receive compensation for losses. For its first two years, the issue of the Right of Return was not a prominent part of the work of the US Campaign, the tactical decision having been taken to focus on other aspects of US government and
corporate policies in support of Israeli human rights violations. But there was never a question of support for UNSC resolution 194. In response to widespread confusions and rumors, a letter from the Steering Committee was read publicly at the 2003 US Campaign annual
conference, and entered into the official record. This letter reiterated the commitment of the US Campaign to all relevant aspects of international law together with the explicit understanding that this included the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes
and to receive compensation.

At the 2004 conference a year later, the membership adopted the Right of Return as one of its key priority areas for educational work. Again, this was done publicly and on the record without the slightest equivocation and received the unanimous support of the US Campaign
leadership. At this point, the US Campaign felt confident that rumors would be put to rest. Unfortunately this confidence was mistaken.

It is hard to know what else to say. It is hard to know how confusion on the position of the US Campaign could, at this point, be honest or well intentioned. Since no one involved in the effort to disassociate Al-Awda from the US Campaign has made any effort to speak with the
Steering Committee of the US Campaign, we really have no idea what motives are behind this effort. It has been suggested to us that our association with United for Peace and Justice is troubling to some.

Though there are member groups of United For Peace and Justice which disagree with the US Campaign on important issues concerning Palestine, every member group of United for Peace and Justice has agreed to support an end to all aid to Israel and it is our belief that the only
way to encourage such groups to develop their views in a more consistent direction is by engaging with them. As such, we believe continued work within this broad coalition of progressive organizations to be important. United for Peace and Justice has provided substantial support for many US Campaign projects, and continues to do so.

To reiterate, there is no question about the position or commitment of the US Campaign regarding the Right of Return. In light of this, we continue to welcome the participation of any and all Al-Awda chapters or individual members who wish to work with us and we welcome
constructive criticism and debate as we all strive to strengthen our work in solidarity with Palestine. For those who choose not to work with us, that is their right. It is not, however, anyone's right to spread deliberate misinformation and we therefore call on those urging
disassociation, in the spirit of basic fairness and honesty, to circulate this letter to their members.

In solidarity,

Steering Committee
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

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