Until Return - Issue 3
UNGA 194 (11 December, 1948) – 59 Years Later
December 11, 2007
“Our problem is very simple. A foreigner came and took our land, took our farms and our homes, and kicked us out. We have in mind to return. It may take a hundred years but we will return” Palestinian farmer from Jericho. Quoted by Dr. Ismail Zayid, “Palestine: Fifty years of ethnic cleansing and dispossession” in Dossier on Palestine, 2002
December 10, 2007 marks the 59th anniversary of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A day later on December 11, 1948, The United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 194 to call world attention to the fact that the Declaration had already been breached by the imposition of the Zionist state in May of that year, and the expulsion of more than three quarters of a million of the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, and the theft of the homes and lands they occupied.
This heinous act was followed by the assassination, of UN mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte by a Zionist terrorist squad. He had been sent by the UN to work for the refugee's safe return. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 demands that the State of Israel not interfere with the safe return of Palestinians to their homes and lands, with compensation.
After nearly 60 years, the Zionist occupation, land theft and the world's longest standing refugee problem, continue.
UN resolutions meant to protect humanity from predatory countries, have been ignored in the case of ‘Israel’ on a regular basis. Resolution 194 has been reaffirmed more than 130 times during the years of our nakba, yet the Zionist State of Israel has been exempt from any UN actions against its flouting of international law largely because of US government support.
The Zionist State of Israel came into being on the premise that the Palestinian people must be removed from the face of their own land forever. This genocidal plan is carried out by a process of ethnic elimination. The results of this can be seen in the devastation they continue to inflict on the people and landscape of The Gaza Strip, the expansion of colonial settlements into the West Bank and elsewhere, the demolition of entire Palestinian villages in the Naqab southern region of Palestine, and the continued confiscation of land and demolition of homes elsewhere in central and northern Palestine.
The recent meetings in Washington DC and Annapolis Maryland called by US president GW Bush and Secretary of State Condoliza Rice, to much fanfare, resulted in exposing the clear intention by the US government and Zionist regime to wipe the Palestinian Right of Return out of existence by whatever means necessary.
On December 12 , 2007, US Secretary of State Condoliza Rice and Ehud Olmert from the Zionist State of Israel, are again expected to attempt to impose the Final Solution upon the Palestinian people – by putting the Right of Return up for auction as a bargaining chip even though this right cannot be negotiated away.
The people who live in Palestine and in the Shatat (forced exile) continue their struggle to return and regain their homeland. Our individual and collective Right to Return to a free Palestine is sacred, legal and non-negotiable. We will not stop our struggle to return and invite all people of good will to join us.
Until Return!
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