International Response to the Bush Declaration on the Palestinian Right to Return

Note: The following is an international response to the declaration made by President George W. Bush on vital issues regarding the Palestinian people, particularly their right to return.  On May 15, 2004, this response will be sent to all members of the United Nations General Assembly and other relevant parties.  We hope to show an international consensus supporting the Right of Return.  Please join!  We encourage institutional, organizational, and individual endorsements.  We ask that you post this response and pass it along as widely as possible.  Thank you. For endorsement, please write to: responsetobush@yahoo.com)

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April 15, 2004

In response to the most recent declaration given by President of the United States, George W. Bush, to Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, on April 14, 2004, at the White House, we, the undersigned affirm the full individual and collective inalienable Right to Return of the Palestinian Arab People to their homes, property and land of origin.  We assert in no uncertain terms that such a fundamental right is inviolable as it is based on the unbreakable natural belonging of a people to their property and place of origin, as enshrined in international law.  Accordingly, we hold that the Palestinian Right to Return is an indispensable obligatory prerequisite for the achievement of any justice and peace.

We consider any attempt to weaken, lessen, or alter such a right in any form through any proclamations or agreements between any parties to be counter to the human, political, civil, and national collective right of the Palestinian Arab People. Hence, such an attempt, along with its implications and ramifications, are null and void in total, regardless of the passage of time and the entities entering into such agreements or issuing such proclamations.

On November 2, 1917, Great Britain issued the Balfour Declaration that promised Palestine to a European settler colonial movement, amounting to the inevitable dispossession and exile of the Palestinian people. Today, at a time when another Deir Yassin massacre is carried out in Fallujah in an attempt to cement the US occupation of Iraq, the Bush Administration is simultaneously attempting to complete the Balfour project of 1917 by nullifying the Palestinian Right to Return, and by giving an international cover to the creation of a truncated and walled collection of Bantustans that would normalize and legitimize the process of ethnic cleansing.

Recognizing this existential and imminent danger, we stand against this new Balfour Declaration, and reaffirm our unwavering position that the Palestinian Right to Return is an inextricable anchor and prerequisite to full Palestinian self-determination, freedom, and liberty.

(This public declaration will be submitted to all members of the UN General Assembly and other relevant parties on May 15, 2004. For endorsement, please write to: responsetobush@yahoo.com)

www.ror-congress.org

FOCUS: THE PALESTINIAN RIGHT OF RETURN Also see: Seismic shift Dina Ezzat reports on Arab attempts to minimise losses in the face of President Bush's U-turn on US Middle East policy Policy of death Israel gloats over the assassination of Hamas leader Al-Rantisi while the Palestinians mourn the loss of their martyr, reports Khaled Amayreh Still stateless Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are seeing their chances of returning home dwindle. Mohalhel Fakih reports from camps across Lebanon Danger zone For Egypt, Bush's support to Sharon over Israel's unilateral disengagement plan signals the onset of a perilous new era in Middle Eastern politics. Dina Ezzat reports on Cairo's reaction and, below, follows yet another episode of efforts to hold the Arab summit On the edge of the abyss -- again Amidst public anger over the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Al-Rantisi, Gihan Shahine finds the US has also come under fire for its widely perceived complicity in the bloodshed How blank the US check? Bush may have given Israel a blank check some time ago to use all means necessary to suppress the Palestinian uprising, but US officials conceded that the assassination of Al-Rantisi came at a very awkward time, Khaled Dawoud reports from Washington Balfour to Bush President Bush sent a shocking message to his counterparts in the Arab world by supporting Sharon's disengagement plan and dropping the Palestinian right of return, writes Amira Howeidy Balfour renewed Though a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza was thought to be the beginning, Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon is seeking "written assurance" from the US that it be the end of Palestinian demands, reports Khaled Amayreh from the West Bank Law of the jungle The ripping up of agreements, the shredding of international law, has become a Washington habit. It threatens us all, writes Ibrahim Nafie The second Balfour Declaration A question that Mohamed Sid-Ahmed believes stands at the heart of the Palestinian problem: is Israel the state of all its citizens or that of its Jewish community only? Open letter to President Bush By Osama El-Ghazali Harb An unacceptable invitation With his letter to Sharon reversing years of US foreign policy Bush has declared war on moderation, says Hassan Nafaa