Conference on
“The Future of the Dispelled Palestinians”
September 11 – 13, 2000

An Arab Strategic Vision
To implement The Right of Return

Contents

 

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Preamble                                       top    back

The CDPF Conference discussed the most critical, controversial and complex issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict: the Palestinians right of return to their homeland that they where expelled from due Israeli aggression. Various international community forces have failed to resolve this problem because of the continued Israeli obduracy.  Israel has also consistently rebelled against the international community: it has refused the resolutions of the international institutions with regard to the refugees’ issue and it has consistently shown disrespect for the bases, principles and rules of the general international law.

A fifty-two year period has elapsed since the exile and displacement of the Palestinians. During this period, Arabs have foiled the resettlement projects which the Israelis and their allies had hoped to accomplished.

The dispelled Palestinians issue, covering two-thirds (67.7%) of the Palestinian people, is still considered the basic core of the conflict in the region. Proposed political solutions have been unable to deal with the issue in a just manner.   In fact, these political settlements and the peace negotiations in their various stages have actually delayed the resolution of the dispelled Palestinians issue because the discussions have concentrated on improving the living conditions of the Palestinian refugees who are living in special camps.

Several factors play a role in the ongoing conflict: the absence of a unified Arab strategy; the haste of foreign partries to end the issue at the expense of Arab rights; and the efforts to make the right of return a vague matter through international legal terms, use of UN elastic phrases such as  “refugees” and “emigrants,” and Israeli pressure to raise problems of definition during negotiations and in press releases.  Consequently, we find it necessary to correct the situation and keep the Arab right of return complete and comprehensive under the term “Dispelled Palestinians” - which includes all Palestinians who live outside Palestine in addition to the refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Recently, different multi-level approaches have emerged, supported by concerned international parties that are trying to substitute indemnity and resettlement for the right of return.  Furthermore, these parties are trying to sell their ideas to the Palestinians who have suffered displacement, and been denied living in their own country for more than 50 years.  Although there is wide media coverage of the figures for the compensation of the hosting countries and the dispelled Palestinians – which have been presented in papers and discussions of the issue – these parties purposefully overlook any possibility of implementing the right of return. Instead, they emphasize compensation and resettlement as the realistic, practical solution of the problem. However, this solution merely abrogates the right of return, putting the burden of the problem on the Arabs while exempting Israel and the international community from their legal, financial, and even political obligations. 

The right of return to the homeland can never be compensated for by money or passports, no matter how valuable they are. This fact is all the more true in the case of the Palestinians due to the special significance of Palestine as a Holy Land to which Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims are inexorably linked by religion, culture, and history.

In any case, no international or other party has identified the countries ready to finance the indemnities and the political and legal rights of those who would accept such indemnities.  Furthermore, no answers have been given to what would be the new political and legal rights of those who accept these compensations.  Moreover, the exaggerated figures that have been presented are based on payments to be distributed over a twenty-year period, and the compensation figures of the first generation of the refugees would differ from those of the succeeding generations.  The figures would provide only a few hundred dollars for the individual every year ($125-$1500) in exchange for abandoning the right of return;  i.e., giving up the land, houses, and homeland, and forgetting the suffering, displacement and injury.

Discussion of the dispelled Palestinian issue in this conference emanated from insistence on reaching a clearly defined strategy which could be officially and publicly implemented for implementation of the right of return.  The lapse of time does not abrogate the right of the Palestinian people to return to their land and homes.   It should be noted that occupation by military force is never approved by the international law, no matter how long it lasts.

 The conference aimed at crystallizing a vision of a unified Arab strategy in order to solve the issue with its Palestinian, Arab and Islamic and international dimensions as well as its political, legal, economic and social aspects. In fact, the Conference achieved its goals.  It set up basic principles and proposed programs with practical mechanisms to realize this vision.  For the first time, this strategic vision has been designed within an academic, political, Arab framework based on implementing the right of return. The participants from 16 Arab states, including as many as 450 scholars, presented 45 research papers completely covering the many aspects of the problem.  In so doing, the conference reached a realistic and practical vision based on the application of the right of return, the refusal to resettlement, and compensation.  These forms mark a very important shift in dealing with the problem at the Arab and Palestinian academic and political level. 

In summary, this document is totally dependable as a pivotal base and main reference for the policymaking process at the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim level with regard to the Palestinian cause.                                                                                               top    back

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Script of Conference Declaration

The right of the Palestinian refugees and the dispelled Palestinians* (Palestinians in Diaspora) to return to their lands and homeland is a legitimate and natural right. This right is fully protected by divine law and the international legitimacy of human rights. It should be considered as the fundamental pivot and base of the Palestinian and Arab struggle to protect the Palestinian eople and secure their legitimate rights, which cannot be dealt with conclusively.

1. The Basic Principles

1.1  Israel is legally, politically and morally the full responsible party for creating the refugees and dispelled Palestinians problem. It is also responsible for all consequent effects.

1.2  The right of return for the Palestinian refugees and the dispelled Palestinians is considered one of the most important pivots of the Palestinian issue and the Arab-Israeli conflict, if not the most important one of all.

1.3  The Palestinians’ right to return to their homes and lands is absolute, owing to the firm relation between the land and the people. This right is to be implemented irrespective of the legal, political, social or economic conditions of these Palestinians. The right of return is a fundamental right, which can not, in any case, be limited to its human aspects.

1.4  Adherence to the principles of the General International Law, its rules, and the resolutions of the United Nations related to the right of return - foremost of which is the Resolution of the General Assembly No. 194 for 1948, which affirmed the Palestinians’ absolute right of return.

 

1.5  The right to return is collective and guaranteed by the provisions of the General International Law, which confirmed the right of the people to self-determination. At the same time, this right is an individual one guaranteed by  international human rights conventions.

1.6  The right of return is permanent. It doesn’t abate by lapse of time. It can not be relinquished or violated by any means whasoever. 

1.7  To draw upon the resolutions issued by the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Muslim World League, the Non-Alignment Movement and other organizations, which affirmed the Palestinians’ right to return to their homes and lands.

1.8  The resettlement schemes of the refugees and displaced Palestinians in the Arab World and abroad are an Israeli imperialistic attempt to abrogate the right of return.  It liberates Israel from its legal and moral responsibilities with regard this problem.

 

1.9  The right of indemnity is not a substitute for the right of return. It should be implemented after the full exercise of the right of return. Indemnity aims at rectifying damages and restoring original conditions. It is aimed at redressing the physical and incorporeal impacts afflicting the Palestinian refugees and the dispelled Palestinians. This indemnity can not in any way be a compensation for the land to which the Palestinians have the right to return to by virtue of international legitimacy.

2. Main Trends

By virtue of the above basic principles along with their political, legal and human aspects, the following general trends are proposed:

2-1. On the Palestinian Level                                                          top    back

2-1-1.  To continue the dedication of Palestinian national unanimity on the right of return, with refusal of resettlement and compensation as a substitute of the right to return. To call on the political and social forces to pursue their role in this regard.

2-1-2.  To maintain the Arabic and Islamic strategic depth and its supportive stand of the right of return.

2-1-3.  Emphasizing the right of return to Palestine as the land of the Palestinian people as well as its sanctity and special significance to the Palestinian People and the Arab and Muslim World.

2-1-4.  To revive the religious and national events that tie the people to their land and sacred places in Palestine.

2-1-5.  To support the refugees’ steadfastness, especially those living in the camps, as well as to support improving their present conditions.

2-1-6.  To activate the role of official and popular Palestinian organizations to defend the right of return and to protect the rights of the Palestinian people inside and outside Palestine.

2-1-7.  To strengthen and fortify the Palestinian community against the ideas and schemes that promote the idea of compensation and resettlement as a substitute for the right of return to the homeland.

2-2. On the Arab and Islamic Level

2-2-1. To refuse the idea of settling the refugees out of their lands. To coordinate the Arab and Muslim stands in favor of the right of return.

2-2-2.To call for and advocate the improvement of the Palestinian refugees’ conditions in the camps and to respect their fundamental basic rights.

 

2-2-3.To advocate the consolidation of the united Arab-Muslim position with regard to the problem of the Palestinian refugees based on implementing the right of return.

2-2-4.To reject the principle of linking migration of Jews from Arab countries to Palestine to the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homes and lands by the Zionist Movement.

2-2-5.To mobilize Arab and Muslim public opinion for continuous support and dedication to the right of return of the Palestinian refugees.

2-2-6. To advocate the importance of Arab and Islamic participation in international activities related to the Palestinian issue so as to mobilize international support for implementing the right of return.

2-3. On the International Level

2-3-1.  To prompt concerned international parties to shoulder their responsibility with regard to the implementation of the international resolutions relevant to the right of return.

2-3-2.  To activate the role of non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) to support the cause of the Palestinian refugees based on the right of return.

2-3-3.  To maintain the role of UNRWA as a witness and evidence of the continuity of the refugees issue. To improve the standards of its services.  To oppose shifting its functions to any other party until the right of return is fully realized.

 

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3.  Mechanisms of Implementation

3-1.To advocate the establishment of an office that promotes the implementation of the right of return in the Arab League and in the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

3-2.To establish different institutions, organizations and associations to stress the right of return and to convene conferences inside and outside Palestine that promote this right.

3-3.To advocate organizing political, and diplomatic informative campaigns to confront and encounter the misleading Zionist propaganda and to explain the importance of the right of return and its legitimacy.

3-4.To activate the role of Arab and international organizations working in the field of human rights to raise awareness with regard to the Palestinian cause and its importance. These organizations are encouraged to cooperate with various popular and intellectual organizations to adopt and support the right of return.

3-5.To promote the role of research centers in providing informative documents and data related to the Palestinian refugees and the dispelled Palestinians, which serve the implementation of the right of return.

3-6.To form a committee dedicated to follow-up mechanisms of implementation of this vision.

3-7.To establish a fund specified for supporting the right of return.

3-8.To convene an annual Arab forum to evaluate the achievements and accomplishments carried out according to this strategic vision.               

3-9.To organize a campaign to raise awareness and to educate people in regard to the right of return issue. To also call for political, informative and cultural dialogues all over the Arab world, particularly among the Palestinian refugees and the dispelled Palestinians inside and outside Palestine, which adopt and support this vision and can interpret its ideas into practical programs. 

3-10.     To establish a web site on the Internet dedicated to the Conference on “The Future of the Dispelled Palestinians” and the strategic vision promoted by this conference. This site should be the main forum for scholars interested in the right of return issue. It should attract studies, articles and updated news that relate to the right of return.                                                                                         top    back

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The Strategic Vision Committee

The following Persons have participated in the Strategic vision Committee in two sessions held during the conference.