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POINTS OF UNITY
The following are the host committee points of unity:
- This committee 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 committee 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".
- This committee unequivocally
supports the fundamental, inalienable, individual and collective rights of all Palestinian refugees
to return to their original towns, villages and lands
anywhere in Palestine from which they were expelled. This committee 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.
- This committee 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 committee firmly stands against
the collective punishment of Palestinians, and all violations
of Palestinian civil, economic, political, national and
human rights. This committee abhors and condemns the
use of massacres and abuse of civilians to further the
expansion of "Israel" to the detriment of Palestinian society.
- This committee 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 committee 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 committee 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.
- This committee 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.
- This committee 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 committee 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
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