Palestinian Return Center rejects Olmert's 'peace' proposal
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert speaks at
a conference in Herzelia near Tel Aviv
November 28 (MaanImages)
December 1, 2006
Ma'an - The Palestinian Return Centre, an independent academic and media consultancy founded in the UK, has issued a press release declaring that it objects to any attempt to discount the right of Palestinian refugees to return, in accordance with international law and human rights conventions. The PRC issued the press release in response to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's comments on Monday, in which he proposed a withdrawal from parts of the Palestinian occupied West Bank, in exchange for a Palestinian agreement to relinquish the right of return of refugees.
The PRC declared, "even if one is naïve enough to trust Olmert’s most recent ‘peace’ offering, writing off the right of return of five million Palestinian refugees is a red line that no Palestinian can cross. This right has been reaffirmed year after year by the United Nations’ General Assembly and is considered a corner stone for the Palestinian struggle."
They continued, "It would be most unwise to trust the Israeli government now, as it makes such ‘peace’ offers at the same time [as] its army’s bulldozers are busily dividing Palestinian towns in the West Bank, destroying ancient olive trees and forcing thousands of farmers away from their land. To give up the right of return now, doesn’t only violate international law, validate Israel’s ethnic cleansing policies of the past, but it rather vindicates the Israeli government's ongoing practices in the Occupied Territories which themselves continue to render many Palestinians homeless, on a daily basis.
"It must also be said that even if Olmert is indeed genuine in his new quest for peace, neither he nor anyone else has the right to exchange a Palestinian right for another. Both an end to the Israeli occupation and the right of return are two fundamental rights safeguarded by international law; like in the case of all fundamental human rights they must neither be subject for [sic] swaps nor barters."
The Palestinian Research Centre concluded by stating that it "calls on the international community to withhold international law, and on Palestinians and those who support their just cause everywhere not to allow such Israeli strategy of fragmenting and renegotiating fundamental Palestinian rights to sway them from their courageous struggle for freedom, rights and sovereignty."
a conference in Herzelia near Tel Aviv
November 28 (MaanImages)
December 1, 2006
Ma'an - The Palestinian Return Centre, an independent academic and media consultancy founded in the UK, has issued a press release declaring that it objects to any attempt to discount the right of Palestinian refugees to return, in accordance with international law and human rights conventions. The PRC issued the press release in response to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's comments on Monday, in which he proposed a withdrawal from parts of the Palestinian occupied West Bank, in exchange for a Palestinian agreement to relinquish the right of return of refugees.
The PRC declared, "even if one is naïve enough to trust Olmert’s most recent ‘peace’ offering, writing off the right of return of five million Palestinian refugees is a red line that no Palestinian can cross. This right has been reaffirmed year after year by the United Nations’ General Assembly and is considered a corner stone for the Palestinian struggle."
They continued, "It would be most unwise to trust the Israeli government now, as it makes such ‘peace’ offers at the same time [as] its army’s bulldozers are busily dividing Palestinian towns in the West Bank, destroying ancient olive trees and forcing thousands of farmers away from their land. To give up the right of return now, doesn’t only violate international law, validate Israel’s ethnic cleansing policies of the past, but it rather vindicates the Israeli government's ongoing practices in the Occupied Territories which themselves continue to render many Palestinians homeless, on a daily basis.
"It must also be said that even if Olmert is indeed genuine in his new quest for peace, neither he nor anyone else has the right to exchange a Palestinian right for another. Both an end to the Israeli occupation and the right of return are two fundamental rights safeguarded by international law; like in the case of all fundamental human rights they must neither be subject for [sic] swaps nor barters."
The Palestinian Research Centre concluded by stating that it "calls on the international community to withhold international law, and on Palestinians and those who support their just cause everywhere not to allow such Israeli strategy of fragmenting and renegotiating fundamental Palestinian rights to sway them from their courageous struggle for freedom, rights and sovereignty."
posted by HRM Deborah of Israel and the Messenger of Peace at 1:12 AM
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